The House
by Azuril Noir Raine
Summary: a crossover between Dynasty Warriors, Soul Calibir 2 and another game that i don't remember. yaoi, more than likely sm stuff, fetish stuff possibly, sadism, mentions of rape, character bastardizing, ooc behaviour. coauthored with my friend Anshichan.
1. Author's Notes

ANR: ok, Anshi-chan, love me for this!

Aken: she'll be the only one.

ANR: eat shit and die.

Aken: shut up and give em the info!

ANR: oh, right! Ok, this is an RP thing that me and my friend Anshi-chan are doing via IM.

Aken: explain why you're posting an IM conversation.

ANR: shut your face hole, I'm getting to it! Ok, Anshi-chan is away at college, and I'm on my fifth year of high school, so she lives on her computer and I finally got my lazy ass in gear and set up an IM thing on my Yahoo account. To pass the time, we've been doing an RP that involves characters from different video games and chracters we made up...so far there are less OCs than there are already copyrighted characters.

BD: all the copyrighted characters are yummy yummy men...save for Raphael. He scares me.

ANR: we only made him that scary. It's called bastardizing. And like all of the non-OCs are OOC, there's yaoi, straightness, kinky and S/M things, just icky things from our deranged minds and mentions of another story and RP that's going on. Anshi-chan and a friend of hers, whom I have yet to meet, are doing an RP involving the four guys with funny names-

BD: Lu Xun.

Aken: Ranmaru Mori.

Zykan: Masamune Date.

BD: and Mitsuhide Akechi.

ANR: yeah, them. Well, Anshi-chan and a friend of hers are doing an RP involving those four, love triangles present. I guess first Xun and Date were together, then broke up, now Ranmaru and Xun are a thing and Mitsuhide's lusting after Date.

BD: and all of the above are very yummy visual pictures.

Zykan: you're a sick bitch, did you know that?

BD: it's been said before.

Zykan: really...

ANR: and as for all of the Soul Calibur and Legend of Zelda characters, Sheik from Legand of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, Link from Legand of Zelda in general, Nightmare from Soul Calibur and any other characters that might pop up from Soul Calibur, are all in groupings and couples from the joint fic Anshi-Chan and I were writing. Neko is owned by Anshi-chan and Mars is my doing.

BD: Link and Neko have a thing going, and Nightmare and Mars are sort of a thing.

Aken: how does that work? Nightmare's twice his size.

BD: hmmm...

Zykan: I really didn't need that thought implanted into my brain.

BD: and Sheik and Zelda are two different and separate beings. We've been going with the fanfic theory that Sheik is Impa's nephew.

ANR: any arguments on Sheik's gender and identity will be dismissed and ignored. We don't own any of the characters from other places and we don't plan on making any money off of any of this.

Zykan: on with the show.


	2. Chapter 1

The House

Ch. 1

Co-Authored By Azuril Noir Raine (when life gives you lemons, throw them back in life's face and demand candy!)

Co-Authored By Anshi-chan (I am a man!)

* * *

All is strangely quiet in the House. The ever-enigmatic Weaver was gone again---off saving the world or something of the sort. All that remained was Ranmaru Mori, Mitsuhide Akechi, and Lu Xun. Masamune Date, was off on one of the numerous missions that the residents were asked to go on. Soon, the Weaver stormed through the front doors with a new member behind her. The three rushed to the main hall---standing at attention.

"Alright everyone, this is the newest resident. His name is Mars...don't piss him off." That was all the warning she gave before she vanished again.

Mars looked around without saying a word, then he looked the room's other occupants over, finally speaking,

"Ok, so, who're you?"

Ranmaru slapped his forehead. "Gods, he's exactly like Masamune." He mutters. Xun on the other hand, sweatdrops.

"My name is Lu Xun, he's Ranmaru Mori, and that's Mitsuhide Akechi. Masamune will be around at some point in time. He's out on a mission right now." Xun says, smiling warmly.

"Um, ok then." Mars said, "and should I be offended by the Masamune comment?"

"Yes." Ranmaru said flatly.

"No." Mitsuhide said, giving Ranmaru a look.

"Alrighty then." Mars said, "two questions, where am I sleeping and when's our next meal?"

"See? He is just like Masamune." Ranmaru growled. Xun sweatdropped again.

"Lu Xun is in charge of making dinner tonight. So whenever he calls us, that's when we eat." Mitsuhide says. Xun started towards the stairs, motioning for Mars to follow.

"Come on, I'll show you to your room."

"Ok." Mars followed Xun upstairs, then looked over his shoulder back down by the other two men in the house, "so why's that Ranmaru guy hate Masamune so much? If I'm going to come in in the middle of a love-hate relationship then I'd like to know what it is I'm working with here."

Xun sniggered before he burst into laughter.

"No no no. Ranmaru is my lover. He just hates Masamune because he thinks that Masamune is just a manipulative bastitch, which is wrong. Mitsuhide kinda loves Masamune but the feelings aren't returned. Here's your room. Masamune and I are on either side of you." He explains, passing a bright red and gold door and stopping at a complex-ly decorated wooden door.

"That clears things up oh-so-very much for me. Thank you" the grey eyed boy said sarcasticlly,."I'm going to take a nap, wake me for any reason other than food and I'll kill you." then he disappeared into his room, slamming the door behind him.

Xun blinked for a moment and returned downstairs, finding his boyfriend and Mitsuhide having vanished. With a sigh, he slipped into the kitchen to begin cooking. It wasn't long before the delicious scent of something (not stew!) wafted through the levels of the House, and not too much longer after that was the meal actually ready.

Xun turned towards the stairs to go wake Mars and jumped back when he found said boy standing about a yard behind him.

"Are you feeding me now? Don't tell me we have to wait until those other guys get here. Tell me we don't." he said, eyeing the food hungrily, "I haven't eaten since sun-up and then that weirdo popped up and dragged me off here, so I have a right to be starving. Feed me. Now."

Xun sighed and crossed his arms.

"They won't be too long. And we don't have to wait for Masamune." He said sternly as Mitsuhide and Ranmaru flooded into the kitchen. "Now you can eat."

"Wahooo!" Mars yipped, then he paused and looked at the other two men in the room, "What?" he snapped, "I'm hungry. Keep me from my food and I won't hesitate to roast your ass, and not feel bad about it afterwards."

"How old are you again?" Ranmaru said flatly, Mars twitched

"Weren't you warned not to get me mad? You won't like me when I'm mad." he said, then he looked at the food again, "at least it isn't soup or stew. Gods, I'll never be able to eat either of those again, I've had my fill for the rest of my life."

"Excuse me?" Mitsuhide said, "What exactly does that mean?"

"I find it best that you not ask." Mars said, then he looked at Xun, "Feed me."

"Then sit." Xun said, bringing plates almost overflowing with food over to the group. "I have been meaning to ask...how old are you? I mean, I'm 17, Masamune and Ranmaru are 18 and Mitsuhide is 24."

Mars raised an eyebrow and looked at Mitsuhide,

"You're after someone 6 years younger than you?" Mitsuhide looked at Xun, who feigned ignorance and set down the food, Mars snatched a plate and began to devour its contents, then he looked at Ranmaru, "and you're dating a kid?" Ranmaru gave Xun the same look Mitsuhide had, again the boy feigned ignorance. Ranmaru looked at Mars.

"I do believe you were asked a question. Though it is impolite to ask a woman her age." he said sarcasticlly, then the entire House shook when a

BOOM!

Was heard. Mars continued eating as though he hadn't just caused a massive explosion with Ranmaru at its core.

"Go rot alone and unloved somewhere, you jerk. And I'm 16."

in a heartbeat, Xun grabbed Mars and slammed him against the wall, one of his sabers pressing against the boy's neck. His eyes blazed with fury---a swift change from the meek demeanor of a few moments ago.

"Lu Xun, let him go." Mitsuhide muttered---whilst Ranmaru reincarnated.

Xun hesitated a bit, then dropped Mars, who sat on the floor for a moment, biting back his own temper. When he was calm enough to move without hurting someone again, he got to his feet and looked at Mitsuhide when he spoke.

"How did you do that? And please pardon, well, both of them."

"No lasting damage done. But, damn, you're fast!" Mars said, looking at Xun, then back at Mitsuhide, "and it was actually rather easy to pull off. I do it all the time, that and talk to squirrels."

"What?" Ranmaru said.

"Long story short?"

"if you would please."

"I'm a mage. And I'm eating upstairs. He's scary," he pointed to Xun, "and I'm finding a slowly forming dislike towards him forming within me." he pointed to Ranmaru. Then he grabbed his plate and left, a minute later, a door slammed closed.

" 'Scary'? I think that's the first time someone's described you as such. Normally everyone calls you a kitten."

"Bite me, Mitsuhide." Xun snapped, finishing his meal and setting his dishes in the sink. Ranmaru whimpered a little and followed his boyfriend, the two of them retreating to the bath. Mitsuhide sighed and cleared his place, returning to the library.

About half an hour went by, then Mitsuhide looked up when he heard someone enter the room, Mars was looking around both in some bit of awe and in some bit of tensed cautiousness.

"Are...you alright?" he asked, eyeing the younger boy up a bit, jumping when Mars spoke up.

"Books!" he said, heading for the books, looking somewhat similar to a child at a candy store, snatching up various things as he went, then he left with a large pile of books in his arms. Mitsuhide listened for a moment, waiting for the slam of a door, not hearing one, he let confusion set in when he heard the door to the house open and close, he looked out the nearest window and found Mars setting the books down on the grass, then picking one out of the pile and jumping up into a tree, settling down and opening the book.

With a slight smile, he sighed and returned to his reading. After about ten minutes, Masamune Date came limping up the path to the house. One arm was trying to stop the bleeding in his shoulder, through his cracked and crumpled armor. He was dragging his injured leg behind him, and there was a dark bruise forming on his cheek. As he got closer, he noticed Mars.

"Who the fuck are you?"

Mars looked away from his book with a slightly annoyed look on his face.

"Well, aren't you pleasent. I should be asking you the same thing. And my name is Mars. Go to hell if you're going to be rude to me, I have far better things to waste my life on than talking to an idiot." then he started reading again, after a second, looking back down at Date, "um, are...you o...k?" he asked, looking at all of the injuries. "You remind me of a friend of mine, she never could keep herself in one piece for over ten minutes. Here, humor me." he jumped down, put his book down and slapped Date's hand away from his shoulder, "hold still, retaliate and I'll blow your head up." he said distractedly, healing any injuries he saw, "there. You can 'heal' your clothes yourself. I don't do laundry."

Date blinked, a little confused.

"Uh...thanks...I guess. You're the new arrival, right?" He asked, now looking at his crumpled armor. "Wait...I think I've heard your name before..." after a moment, his eye widened. "Dude! I know now! The freaky bastard with the rapier mentioned your name..."

"What!" Mars cried, falling out of the tree, laying still for a moment, then jumping to his feet, staring wide eyed at Date, "W-what did you just say? Rapier? Freaky bastard? What was his name?"

"Uh-"

"Talk!" Mars cried, the earth shook and cracked a bit, the young mage looked down at the crack, "oop. I didn't mean to do that."

"What the f-"

"that's not a name! Give me a _name_, man! Now or I'll start you on fire!"

Date didn't take lightly to this. Almost as fast as Xun, his pistols were drawn and pressing against Mars's forehead.

"Imbecile. Give me a moment, okay?" He searched his head for a moment, still keeping his guns to the boy's head. "It was...something like Raphael...I think? He said I reminded him of you..."

"Take that as half a compliment and put those things away. I'm not really afraid of much anymore. Not since..." he shook his head a bit, "I really don't care if you shoot me, just make sure you aim for the head or the chest, nothing cheap, or you're the first one my ghost's coming after." he took a step back, then ran inside. Date lowered his guns. Mars' eyes had gained a hollow, haunted gleam to them when the name Raphael had been mentioned, and, whether he knew it was happening or not, his skin had lost much of its color and he'd started shivering a bit. Something had happened between Mars and Raphael, something that had left Mars very damaged, and had also left him suicidal apparently. He looked down at the crack in the earth.

"What the hell is that kid's problem...?" he muttered.

Date sighed and put his guns away. He checked over his healed injuries, now feeling much better without all the blood and such. He stretched his arms and sat down next to all the books that Mars had left. It wasn't long before he opened one and started reading, losing almost all track of his surroundings until the cold edge of a rapier kissed his neck.

"I thought you would have at least tried to run to safety. But I guess I was wrong."

* * *

TBC...

* * *

A/N: end what will be considered chapter one! If you don't like it, do us a very simple favor, and don't read it. 


	3. Chapter 2

The House

Ch. 2

Co-Authored By Azuril Noir Raine (meecey make funny noise!)

Co-Authored By Anshi-chan (it isn't stew)

* * *

Mars sat on his bed, curled in on himself, taking deep calming breaths.

"I thought he was dead...i-I thought...I thought..." he let the thought die and looked out the window in his room, doing a short series of double-takes, "W-wh-what-what the fucking hell!" he ran out of the room, heading for the last place he'd seen people, the library. "Hey! Hey, um, whoever you are again-"

"Mitsuhide."

"Yeah, that. We-we have a problem. A psychotic, sadistic, sexually abusive problem with a rapier, and he's outside, and a dude with guns is out there too and I bet you any money that he's lost his head, or virginity, by now...or maybe both but who knows."

"Wha-!"

"No speaking! Moving is good! Movign outside is good! Now!"

Date was already not in the best of positions. His arms were bound tightly behind him---and awkwardly and stinging with pain. With his weapons having been stripped from him, it would be a fair assumption to say he was screwed.

"You should have gone inside. Then you would have been safe." The rapier-weilding madman hissed.

"Fuck you!" Date growled, obviously not the most intelligent of the group.

"Raphael!" Mars yelled, running outside, "hey, what the fuck are you doing here! I could have sworn you were dead."

"No such luck apparently!" Date said, Mars flipped him off.

"Hey, I'm here to rescue you, be nice to me." he said, then he looked at rapheal, what the fuck are you doing here!"

"Date!" Mitsuhide ran for the bound worrior, Mars hesitated, but followed, eyes on Raphael the entire time.

"If I didn't know any better," Raphael commented when he finally examined Mars closer, "I'd say that was fear in your eyes, mage."

"Eat me, shit head." Mars said sourly, trying to hide the terror creeping through him, "you've done enough damage to my psyche for one millennium. Just-just go, leave."

"I'll go, but I'll take him with me." Raphael replied, nudging Date with his boot.

"Fuck you." The one-eyed warrior growled, only to get bashed in the head by the hilt of the rapier. Date winced a bit and glanced over at Mars. "Fine. Leave that one alone and I'll go." He said defiantly, wanting to take the brunt of the man's anger, and not knowing the hell he's stepping into.

Mars' jaw dropped,

"Wha-what?" he seemed shocked that someone had thought of him first, then the realization of what Date had just done to himself sunk in, "What! No! No, you don't know what you're doing! Don't go with him! I know he won't kill you, but he'll make you wish for it, beg for it! Don't go, you dumbass!" he looked at Raphael, "Can't you go find some corner slut to occupy your time with! You already know I can take it, just stick with damaged goods and leave it at that! I told myself...I told myself I wouldn't let you get to anyone, not after the hell you put me through, I didn't think that would mean selling myself out again though. Just-just get the hell out of here, if you want a fuck pet that badly, take me, but either way, leave."

"Don't tell me you didn't notice..." Raphael purred, clamping his hand on the back of Date's neck, though it drew no reaction from the boy. "He's just as damaged as you." With that, he 'pulled a Sheik' and the two of them vanished.

Mars let loose a swearing fit,

"Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Why! Why the fuck does he keep haunting me!" he let his legs cave in under him, on his knees on the ground, fists clenched, "Fuck this...just-just fuck it all..." he looked up when Mitsuhide stood in front of him, then let out a tiny, bitter laugh, "wow, I never though I'd find myself in this position again...go ahead, ask me who that was, what he meant, what I want on my gravestone, I'm all ears."

Mitsuhide sat down in front of Mars, no hint of judgement on his face.

"I don't know what happened, but Date can take care of himself. After all the hell he's been through, he damn well better be...but seriously, who was he?"

"I don't know what he's been through in the past, but it can't be, and defiantly isn't, worse than what's about to happen to him." Mars said, now sitting on his feet, eyes downcast, "that was the worst creature to ever walk the planet. I don't know much besides that he's a psycho with an insatiable apetite for pain, and sex, and he goes by the name of Raphael. If he sees something he likes, he keeps it until it's either dead, comatose, too broken to be anymore fun, or it either escapes, which, as far as I know, has only happened once, or kills itself, which didn't quite work out the last time it was attempted." he paused to take a long, shaky breath, "I...had some friends, two weren't from our world, the other, she was. All-all three of them can tell you horror stories about him. Me more so than them though. I haven't seen them in quite some time too." he looked up, "maybe they can give us some aid, I'm sure Neko's more than happy to meet new faces with weapons and possibly money or other valuables."

"Neko? Doesn't that mean-"

"yeah, yeah, I know. If she ever pops up, you'll see just how apprpriate that name really is." he stood up, "but, how do we get a hold of those morons?"

"Now, wait, what about-"

"shut up. I'm thinking..." Mars snapped, then eh went inside, now determined to see his friends again.

Mitsuhide sighed.

"Date has had it pretty rough, even before he came here. When he was 10, he had a dieseas called smallpox, and it infected his eye. He tore out the infected eye, and because of that, his mother and younger brother tried to kill him. Once he got here, however, one of the first missions we went on, he got captured by what the Weaver called 'the inkubus.' That bastard took a liking to Date, and decided he could find a new use for the extra orifice of an empty eye socket." He takes a slight pause. "So...just who are these friends you talk about?"

Mars had an odd look on his face (0-o)

"Um, whoa, that is way more than I ever needed to or wanted to know. Ew. And if I say ew, it means it's gross. Isn't an incubus a demon of seduction? A male one?"

"Um, yes."

"Ok, you poor people, I almost pity you. And these friends I speak of go by the names of Neko, the only chick, Link, one of three blonds in the group, one of two with pointy ears, Sheik's the other pointy eared blond, watch out for him, he isn't one to be taken lightly and he's far more dangerous than the meek little thing he looks like."

"And the third blond?"

"Well, he's..." Mars shook his head, not sure if any rumors about the last member of their group had spread to the occupants of the House, somewhat worrying for the safety of all if they had. "Anyway, get the scary kid and the prick down here, relay everything thatw as just scarred into your mind to them and find me, I'm going to the library. I think better by books."

Mitsuhide shrugs and hunts down Xun and Ranmaru. The three of them appear in the library, ready and willing to start fighting.

* * *

TBC...

* * *

A/N: end what will be thought of as chapter two! Sorry this one was kinda short, but that's how the story crumbles. 


	4. Chapter 3

The House

Ch. 3

Co-Authored By Azuril Noir Raine (1200 people disappeared and all they found was chickens)

Above Quote Co-Created By Aramis Thorongil (Beware the invasion of the crome Twinkies!)

Co-Authored By Anshi-chan (why is there a car on the lake?)

Above Quote Co-Created By Aramis Thorongil (Oh, I'm a spine, not a liver!)

Above Quote Co-Created By Azuril Noir Raine (No! The bananas got me raped! No bananas!)

* * *

"Hi hon, miss me?" The familiar cat-eared girl asked, dropping from the chandelier in the library. "Like my new outfit? Makes life a little easier for my thieving skills. The rest of the group is coming, but they're not as fast as me. Sooo...who're your friends and do they have money? Cuz I'm not doing stuff for free unless the situation calls for it." 

"Neko!" Mars yipped, hugging her, "long time no see. Nice getup." he said, then he took a few steps back, "and I think this is a 'for free' mission." he looked at the three confused peoples in the room, "That's Lu Xun, Ranmaru Mori and Mitsuhide Akechi. Watch out for Xun, he's scary, Ranmaru has a stick up his ass and Mitsuhide is normal enough, compared to the rest of the group I'm stuck with." Mitsuhide rolled his eyes and Ranmaru glared, Xun just stared oddly. "This is Neko. She kicks ass so watch your back, and valuables."

"Howdy." Neko said, then she looked at Mars, "So what's this oober important mission of yours?"

"Wait till the others get here." Mars said, "Then we'll talk."

Neko sighed and looked the three over, all to evident in her expression of what she could steal.

"This had damn well better be for a good cause if I'm doing this for free. Ooo! Mars! You missed it!" Neko squealed, showing off the new diamond and ruby ring on her finger. "See! See! Do you know what this means? See!" She said, smiling brightly. It wasn't long afterwards that the main doors opened and the three familiar blonds made their somewhat grand entrance...though Neko was more concerned with showing Mars her bit of good news.

"That...you...got a new ring?" Mars attempted, then he looked at the three blonds, "yo, long time no annoy, elf-boy! Hi, Sheik..." Neko grinned and snickered at the look on Mars' face, then suddenly, the ring thing sunk in, "You're MARRIED!"

"Um..." Link turned red, Sheik burst out laughing, Nightmare stayed silent, eyeing up the three people he didn't know warily.

"Sweet Jesus! If you get pregnant I'm breaking off contact." Mars said, Neko twitched, "ok, let's make intros brief, guys. That's Lu Xun, Ranmaru Mori and Mitsuhide Aketchi. New guys to my life, this is Neko, that's Link, that's Sheik and that's Nightmare. Everyone acquianted? Good. Down to business." he looked at his old friends, "I'm going to say a word, you tell me whether it sounds familiar or not...Raphael."

Neko, Link, and Shiek tensed at the name.

"Why him? Is he here?" Link asked.

"If he were here, I think we would know, hon." Neko said, "And Mars, we're just engaged, not married yet."

"So...what happened here? Spill." Shiek said.

"Oh, boy, where do I begin?" Mars said, now standing by Nightmare, who still didn't seem at ease with Mars' new roommates, "well, apparently, Raphael took a liking to the other guy that lives here and snagged him, and watch out for him, he's scary." he pointed to Xun, "he tried to kill me."

"I did not!"

"Yes you did, you psycho!"

"Let's not be hypocritical, Mars." Nightmare said, Mars growled a bit, "calm down, no more homicide attempts from anyone, please." Neko snickered.

"It's so fun to hear you of all people say please, Nightmare."

"So that fucked up pervert's running around wiht a new toy, huh?" Sheik said, "well, then, I think it's time to put our differances aside and save our attempts at ending Mars' life for later, and figure this all out now."

"That's why we call you the brains of the group, Sheik, because we make you do all the thinking." Neko said.

"Shut up." Sheik said,

"that's pretty lame." Mars said, I would have thought you'd have a more creative comeback for that one."

"How about eat shit and die?"

"That's MY comeback!" Mars said, Nightmare gave him a look, he stopped talking. Ranmaru looked from Mars to Nightmare,

"how the hell'd you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Make it stop. How?"

"It's easy for him to do." Neko said, "and somewhat easy for us to do, but you guys don't seem to have the balls to properly tell him to shove it."

"But enough about me," Nightmare said shortly, "let's get back to the problem at hand, alright?"

"Yes sir." Neko said.

"So, I take it he's the boss here now then?" Ranmaru said.

"No, just the one with the most demanding deminour." Sheik said.

"I am not demanding, you're just easy to order around. Now focus." Nightmare said, Sheik gave him a 'not demanding, huh?' look, "shut up."

Children, settle down. Now...any idea where this Raphael guy does his sadistic shit?" Xun asked, crossing his arms and appearing rather pensive and scary. Neko blinked.

"Aww..he's just like a kitten...speaking of which, Link, we're getting a puppy when we get married. A big german shepherd."

"What!"

"Nevermind. We'll discuss pets later. Right now...hey, Mars, who the hell are we looking for anyways? Like the name of this kid we're supposed to be looking for?" Neko asked, playing with Link's ears.

"His name's Masamune Date. Apparently he's like an older version of me in a way...but I'm way better looking."

"You just keep telling yourself that." Neko said.

"You don't even know what this guy looks like!" Mars said, "and don't judge me."

"Mars," Nightmare said, Mars looked up at him, "back to the task at hand."

"Right."

"You're a saint. You were sent strictly to pity us, weren't you?" Ranmaru said, Mars twitched, glaring. "I'm scared."

"You should be." Mars hissed, then he looked at Xun, "and I'd kick your ass but your scary boyfriend's here so I won't."

"Ah, but, your scary boyfriend's here now too, Mars." Neko said, then she screamed and ducked a fireball, running out of the library, Mars on her tail, shooting various things at her.

"Well, it's nice to know he hasn't lost his touch and quick reaction time." Sheik said, "let's go rescue people."

"But, we don't know where Raphael took him." Link said, Sheik shook his head,

"No, we don't. But we have a poor, pathetic individual that does know these things. All too well." he said, following the sound of Neko's screaming...and Mars' swearing. "Nightmare, you're ready to rescue her right?"

"Always."

Neko paused in her running. "What if he took him to that damned mansion of his?"

Mars stopped moving.

"Do you think maybe he did?"

"It's the best guess we have, isn't it?" Neko pointed out.

"I'm surprised." Nightmare said as the rest of the group entered the scene, "you're not a french fry, Neko."

"I saved myself." Neko said, Mars rolled his eyes,

"I'll blow up your fiancé later."

"Ack!" Link said, hiding behind Sheik.

"Traitor."

"That's enough, you two." Nightmare said, "let's get this freak show running...and not in terror, Mars." Mars looked around feigning ignorance. "Come on." Naightmare said, leading the way out, Mars right behind him.

"On the road again." Neko sang, walking after her friends, the rest of the group following.

* * *

"So, you guys are the infamous friends of Mars'?" Mitsuhide said, looking at Sheik, who nodded. 

"We are. He was a little ass all the way around when I first met him. He's grown up a lot. Though there are still some lingering bad habits-"

BOOM!

"like that for example."

"Just like old times." Nightmare said sarcastically, waiting for Link to magically reincarnate, then he kept walking. "I hope he hasn't left any lasting damage on any of you in his short stay with you."

"Well, he fucked something up, someone's already made an attempt on ending his life."

"He called me a girl!"

"Oh, the major nerve to not strike. Smooth. Who's the genius?" Neko said, Ranmaru growled and glared at Mars, who flipped him off, then turned back to the front again. "Wowwy, brave." Neko commented. "any questions for us? I have questions."

"Of course you do." Nightmare said, "When don't you have something to say?"

"Funny man."

"I have a question." Xun said, Neko looked at him.

"Shoot, cutey."

"Um, about him," he pointed to Nightmare, Neko added it up.

"He prefers not to talk about the arm thing." she said quickly, noticing Nightmare looking over his shoulder, he turned back to the front after she spoke. "Fewf..."

"Ok. And where did you all come from?" Xun said, Sheik looked flatly at him,

"Well, when a man and a woman love each other very much, or get drunk enough-"

"ok, ok, not like that!" Xun said.

"Well, they're from Hyrule." Neko said, "and as for Mars, Nightmare and me-"

"I have a question quick." Ramaru said,

"I can see why you don't like him." Neko said, looking at Mars as she spoke, he nodded. "Ok, what?"

"Why does the name Nightmare ring a distant bell?"

"Because it's a very common word to hear." Sheik said.

"No, as a name, not a word!" Ranmaru said. "I can't help but think that I've heard of him before."

"Um..." Neko said.

"Uh..." Link pretended he wasn't listening, sheik mimiking him, Neko looked at Mars and Nightmare, Nightmare was pretending he wasn't in earshot and Mars was giving her a 'make it stop now please' look.

"Damn." she muttered. "Well..."

"That is a story for another time." Neko said flatly. "Yes. Back to the problem at hand. Now, Neko mentioned the evil mansion of doom...shall we try there or does no one want to go back there?" Link ventured.

"I don't!" Mars said, raising his hand as though in a classroom, "But I have an odd feeling that, if we don't, we'll miss something that we shouldn't. So let's go back to my own littl hell."

"Your own little hell?" Mitsuhide said, Mars shuddered, Nightmare looked at Mitsuhide,

"it's no one's business but his. Let it drop." then he looked at Mars, "we don't have to go back if you don't think you can handle it."

"I can handle it. I just...never wanted to again." Mars said quietly, cocky deminour gone, replaced by a fearfull and meek one. Neko, Link, Sheik and Nightmare allowed some worry to set in.

"He won't hurt you again, Mars." Neko said, "you know we won't let him."

"I-I know." Mars said, pulling himself back together, "let's go. I don't want anyone in that same hell again."

* * *

TBC...

* * *

A/N: ok, the only reason this cut off where it did was because Anshi-chan had to leave. Chapter four whenever she gets back. 


	5. Chapter 4

The House

Ch. 4

Co-Authored By Azuril Noir Raine (comunal eraser!)

Co-Authored By Anshi-chan (napping with kittens)

* * *

Xun and Ramnaru exchanged worried looks.

"Can we at least know what we're up against?" Mitsuhide asked.

"A man who should no longer be alive. He's gotten four of us, and now one of your group. I wasn't here for the explanation, but even someone like Neko was a wreck after this guy got to her." Link said solemnly.

"Four?" Xun asked, Sheik gave him a flat look,

"one guess as to who he hasn't gotten."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Nightmare said, "and all of us prefer not to go into detail about it."

"Ok." Xun said, not up for arguing with someone at least twice his sixe. Neko grinned,

"Hey, Sheik, we'll probably find that freaky hall of doors again, wanna go poking around again?"

"You weren't even there when that minor nightmare happened, and no." Sheik said, "how'd you find out about that anyway?"

"Um..." she looked at Link, who blanched, then feighned ignorance.

"Traitor."

"Ok, you two, three, whatever, shut up." Nightmare said, "let's just get there without incident and figure things out from there."

"Yes, sir."

"Shut up, Neko."

"We probably should figure out what we're going to do. Neko, no running off in random directions so we could never find you. Mars, stay away from possessed paintings." Link said.

"Wow. You sound like you know what you're doing."

"Shove it, Mars." the three men from the House exchanged confused looks but they continued onwards.

"Don't tell me to shove it, or I'll start your head on fire."

"Mars, save your anger for possess works of art please." Nightmare said, "and shut up before you talk, Neko."

"I'm hurt that you would think I would say a thing about how humorous hearing you say please is."

"Didn't I say shut up?"

They arrived at the mansion about ten minutes later, Mars inched behind Nightmare.

"You go first. I don't wanna."

"Valid fear." Nightmare said, "let's go."

Lu Xun glanced at Ramnaru, and the two drew their weapons: Xun having his Falcon sabers and Ranmaru with his Nodachi. Neko armed herself as well.

"Sheik, wanna accompany me to the higher floors?"

"Sure." The two nodded and walked off, ascending to the second floor windows and getting in that way, whereas the main group went through the main doors.

"I'm looking around and noticing that this place is a lot dustier than it was when last we were trapped here." Mars said, Link looked towards the stairs, Mars thwaked his ear.

"Ow!"

"Come off it. She'll be fine. Sheik's with her." he said, Nightmare looked at the pair.

"Any ideas on where we'll find them?"

"I have a guess." Mars said.

"I'm very lost right now." Xun said.

"Then live in the mystery until we have time to explain." Mars said, "let's go, up the stairs, everyone, before I turn you all into ferrets or something."

"What!" Link gave him an odd look, "ferrets? You can do that?"

"Linger a few seconds longer and try me, elf boy." Mars said, "move."

"Hey! Slow peoples! We found the hallway!" Neko shouted, appearing to be swinging from the chandelier. The group blinked. "Up the stairway! Move it!"

"See? Told you." Mars said, "um, you go first."

"Oh boy..." Nightmare muttered, "let's go." he looked up at Neko, "get down from there before that thing falls on us."

"Yes, mom." Neko said sarcastily, he gave her a look, she jumped down, ""let's go, I left Sheik all alone up there." she said, Link ran up the stairs, not up for leaving one of his best friends all alone in a mansion that more than likely had a rapist in it somewhere. He got to the top of the stairs and found Sheik poking a painting that was glaring at him.

"Eek!" Mars hid behind Nightmare, "don't let it grab me!"

"It's a painting, Mars, it isn't going to hurt you." Neko said, "honestly, you're weird."

"Oh, and you're normal?"

"Cut it out you two. Let's go." Nightmare said, leading the way, Sheik turned away from the painting, Xun, Ranmaru and Mitsuhide all did double takes when the painting flipped him off behind his back.

"That's not something you see everyday." Xun said, inching along the wall opposite the painting, Ranmaru and Mitsuhide following.

"So, where are you taking us?" Ranmaru asked, looking at Neko.

"To a new dimension of hell, more than likely." she said, "I'm with Mars on this one, I never wanted to see this place again."

"Hell, you think either of us jumped for joy at the thought of coming back here?" Link said, Sheik nodded.

"Not the way I wanted to spend my day." he said.

"What? You guys aren't having fun?" Mars said, "cuz I'm farting rainbows over here."

"We didn't need to know that." Neko said, trying not to laugh, Link and Sheik were snickering, Neko finally losing the battle to not laugh, Nightmare had an odd look on his face, but kept any comments he may have had to himself.

"What the hell?" Ranmaru said, "you're even weirder than I thought before."

BOOM!

"Why the hell'd you blow me up!" Link snapped after magically reincarnating, "I didn't do anything!"

"No, I know that, but his psycho boyfriend will try to kill me if I blow him up, so sorry."

"No you aren't."

"No, I'm really not."

"That's not fair punishment." Sheik said,

"you hurt the femmie, I've learned better." Mars said, then he hid by Nightmare when he noticed the glare he was receiving, "what'd I do!"

"You pointed fingers, hypocrit." Sheik said.

"Hypocrit! Excuse me!"

"You heard me. You're not exactly the most masculine looking creature here, you know."

"Oh and you are!"

"More than you!"

"Shut up!" Nightmare snapped, eyebrow twitching a bit, "you're giving me a migrain, and irking me at the same time."

"Eep!" Mars said, he'd seen Nighmare mad, it wasn't pretty.

"I think Nightmare's the most dude-like dude here." Neko said, "Link's next, then Sheik, then Mars."

"What about them?" Mars asked, pointing to the three newbies.

"They're all pretty girly looking." Neko said, "don't get me wrong, you're all beautiful pieces of work, really, but you're all also kinda girlly, you more so than the others." she said, pointing to Ranmaru. "Sorry, but it's true."

"I don't like her." Ranmaru said, Mars grinned.

"Neko, you know you're my new best friend, right?"

Neko smiled. "Yep. I knew. Now...the hallway. Do we want to just go straight for the one at the end with the metal locks and splintered wood? Or should you guys go to the ballroom at the end?" Neko ventured.

"You won't go to the ballroom?" Mitsuhide asked. Neko rapidly shook her head.

"That's where..." Her voice fell silent. Xun nodded in agreement.

"I know how you feel...there's a street back home in my time that I would never wish to return to."

"Eh? Why not? You can take care of yourself." Mars quipped.

"Before I actually started my military career...I was a whore." Xun said flatly.

Mars was silent for a moment, Xun was surprised to see a bit of pity in his eyes.

"Wow. We're pretty similar, in a very haunting respect." he said, turning away from the older boy.

"Whoa, I didn't hear this story." Neko said, "Mars, hey, what happened? I thought it was just-"

"no, he-he started it, after that I just didn't care anymore, I needed money, I needed food, I'm not fast enough to steal things, I'm not strong enough to fight for things, and I didn't really use my power after I was orphaned, so what else was there? No one wanted to hire a street orphan, then, later, no one wanted to give a whore a real job, they figured we were well off enough I guess."

"So, Nightmare, you knew he was-the entire time?" Link said, Nightmare shook his head.

"I had no idea, he wasn't exactly in the middle of anything when I found him. He was sitting by an alley with a book in his lap, reading."

"He offered me something better than nothing," Mars said, "he said, in exchange for my help finding you-know-what, he'd keep me safe, fed and off the streets. Who was I to refuse an offer like that? Plus it ensured that I'd be walking properly everyday and wouldn't have anymore odd cramps in my lower back."

"Awww, that's so sute." Neko said teasingly, Nightmare muttered something under his breath, Mars glared at Neko.

"Just because you're my new best friend doesn't mean I won't hesitate to make you go 'boom'."

"Right." Neko said, "sure you won't. Ok, all, we're at a stand still here." she said, looking down the hall in front of them, "we could split off, each of us takes a door, or we could possibly save ourselves some grief and take this on as a group, or we could just skip to the end of the hall, which will it be?"

"Skip the doors, skip the doors!" Sheik cried, "I had awkward dreams, not quite nightmares but by no means pleasant, for days after this! No doors!"

"O-o...k..." Neko said, "now, show of hands! Doors..."

Xun crossed his arms, deep in thought. "If you've been through this before, then wouldn't it be more logical to just skip to the end?" He said, obviously the smarter of the three.

"Um, well, yeah." Neko said, Sheik spoke up.

"How do we know he isn't in one of these rooms instead of the rooms I know he knows we'll look in first?"

"True." Xun said.

"But," Mars said, "he's the kind of person who would want to be found, he likes the suffering, the showing off comes with that love of pain. The more people he meets the more pain. And I don't know a more humiliating time than being found right after being either just screwed, or raped. He'll be after the humiliation. Let's save Sheik some nightmares and go to the end of the hall."

"Thank you!"

"It could be one of two rooms then." Link said, "The room that randomly and mysteriously locks you inside it, or the ballroom from hell."

"Oh, yay, what a pick." Sheik said, "if it comes down to it, I'm opening the ballroom doors, I've had my fill of that freaky room with the randomly locking door."

"And I've had my fill of the ballroom," Neko said, "I'm opening the evil door."

"And i...don't care either way." Mars said.

"Switzerland." Nightmare said, then he elaborated at the confused look on Link's face, Sheik hiding his confusion a bit better than Link. "I don't care either way either, leave it at that."

"Ok." Sheik said, not up for questioning Nightmare, he never was sure what was safe and what wasn't around him. He knew going after Mars with actual intent to do damage was a no-no though. Mars, whether he was actually cared about or not, was a necessity for Nightmare, the last of his kind, known simply as a Compass, able to sense and pinpoint pieces of a blade known as the Soul Edge, Nightmare happened to be the one who, at that point, owned the evil blade, and wanted it whole again...thus his putting up with the cocky, rude, damaged sixteen year old boy. And it was no secret that Mars only had a very short list of things he wouldn't do for Nightmare, again, whether it was gratitude or something more, no one dared delve, they knew better than to dig past simple wisecracks.

"Let's go," Neko said suddenly, sounding more serious than she had yet, "I smell blood."

* * *

TBC...

* * *

A/N: sorry, short chapter, but it's hard to break this up into chapters since we're writing it as one long thing. Oh, well. The next chapter's gonna get messy, you have been warned. 


	6. Chapter 5

The House

Ch. 5

Co-Authored By Azuril Noir Raine (i'll rape you if i damn well feel like it, femmie!)

Co-Authored By Anshi-chan (damn it, Leon, it's ESKER dining hall not WESKER dining hall!)

* * *

The group tensed at the statement. Neko went for the door, which still bore scratch marks on it from people trying to get inside.

"Darling, cover me." She said, flinging the door open. The armor that Date had been wearing was strewn about the room, crumpled and punctured, but not coated with blood as she had originally thought. "Sheik, the ballroom." She ordered. Sheik nodded and went straight for the ballroom doors, he and Mitsuhide pushing them open...

"Oh...my..." Xun's voice squeaked. Blood and semen was strewn all over the place. "Is that...?"

"Date's eyepatch..."

"So the bastard took advantage of the extra orifice..."

"But where the hell IS he?" Link asked.

"I don't know...I'll go hunting..." Neko said.

"Bad idea...but you're going to do it anyways." Link muttered.

"Then I'm going too." Mars said, Neko shook her head.

"No, you aren't. If something happened you while you were in my care then Nightmare would have my head."

"Then you'd better be careful with me." Mars said, it was fairly obvious that he wanted her to stay by the group, or keep her weighted enough to be careful if she went off on her own. She sighed, giving in.

"Fine."

"Fine what fine?"

"Fine, you can come."

"I win."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Neko, do I even have to say anything or can you figure it out yourself?" Nightmare said, she waved her hand dismissively.

"I know, I know, I won't let him out of my sight for even a second, he will remain within at most a ten foot radius of me and I will not lock him in a room to ensure he stays in one spot then run off without him. If I return him with even one scratch on him that he has a bad story behind it, you can take it from my lifespan. Did I cover it all?"

"Pretty much, and no letting him near any books, we'll be here forever if he finds even one."

"Got chya. Come on, sass."

"Don't call me a sass!"

"Sissy?"

"Eat me, bitch."

"Mars, watch your mouth." Nightmare said, "and don't let her do anything too idiotic."

"Right, and right." Mars said, turning slightly pink at being repremanded for his choice in words. Then he hurried after Neko. Sheik looked at Nightmare when he let out a heavy sigh,

"What's up?"

"She's going to run him around until he's too tired to object to her bring him back here, then she'll run off again when she's dropped him off by us."

"True, probably." Link said, Xun had a thougtfull look on his face.

"I don't know, she seems more like a surrogate sister to him than anything else. I think she'll be careful with him."

"You'd better be right,. Or Link might just end out single." Sheik said, still looking at Nightmare, who shot him a 'shut up' glare, all he did was grin.

* * *

"Neko, do you remember where you where when he was...you know...?" Mars asked. Neko shuddered.

"Kinda...but you don't think he went there, do you? The bed beyond the curtain? The swimming pool full of blood and the dead girls? Shit...What am I looking for? I know the name but not the face..." Neko rambled slightly, coming to the fated black door. "Beyond this. This is where I was before the ballroom...Mars...I should take you back..."

"Why?" he gained a slightly defencive tone, "Because of the possibility of finding a messy scene beyond this point? I've been here before, I've been his toy before, and it seemed like forever until I managed to get away. I'm through running now, got it? I'm not going to be babied by you guys anymore. You've been saying it ever since you first met, I need to grow up a bit. I know I do. I came this far, I'm not going back now. I don't want to. Got it?"

"Geez." she said, not expecting that kind of reaction, "that was totally out of character for you."

"I...I know. This whole thing's just...I just never wanted to be here again, that's all. But I think it's about time I swallowed my pride, that's all. Tell me I'm making sense."

"You are. I get it. Are you positive about this?"

"Yeah. Plus, did you ever look on the bright side and take into consideration the fact that we might just not find anything?"

"True. You're normally not a look on the bright side person."

"In a way, that bright side is also the pesimist's way out, so are we going further or are we gonna stand here and chat?"

"Right, then."

Neko kicked the door open, and the two of them headed down towards the blood-pool. "You wanna talk to the dead-chicks or should I?" Neko asked, wrinkling her nose at the olfactory overload of the scent of blood.

"You talk the talk?" Mars said, she shrugged,

"True."

"True you do or true you don't?"

"I speak to the dead...the whole cat thing..." Neko shrugged.

"Cats speak 'dead people'?"

"Well, yeah, I guess."

"You guess?"

"I guess."

"Then you do it. I did the last time we were here."

Neko sighed and walked towards the pool. The three dead rose from the water.

"Where is he? The one eyed boy that Raphael brought?" She asked. the three spoke all at once.

"The little boy. He was here. He was taken beyond the room." They reply. Neko looked back at Mars with a worried look on her face.

"Let's move."

"R-Right." Mars followed her closely, some part of him worrying about the group they'd left behind them, the rest of him worrying about what would be up ahead of them.

Neko took Mars's hand and they went past the pool. The blood in the torture room was still painfully fresh. "I think he got more creative. I'm pretty sure that the human-sized fishtank over there wasn't here the last time..." Neko said to no one in particular.

"Deffinetly a different way of doing things." Mars said, "and rather awkward to try to contemplate."

"Amen."

"I really don't want to go through that door...is the chinese water torture rack new?" Neko asks.

"I don't think---what the hell are we doing! We're critiquing his decore! Come on! Through the door!" Mars shouts, pulling the two of them back to reality.

"Agreed! let's go!"

Neko bites her lip and tugs back the curtain---knowing that she doesn't want to see what's behind it. Mars is right behind her, the two of them peering into the gloom. "Mars, care to shed some light on the situation?" Neko asked. Mars nodded, summoning a little glowing orb of light. "Oh…my god…"

Date was sprawled out on the bed, completely naked. He was blindfolded, and it appeared that Raphael had gotten rather creative with his bondage techniques…judging by the unusual bruising on his pale skin. There was a ring gag in his mouth, smeared with blood and semen. The collar around his neck was fastened tightly, and the shackles he wore bore new locks in comparison to the ones the two were used to. His lips were tinged with blue, and it was unclear if he was still breathing. As with the previous instances, Raphael was nowhere to be found.

"Eep!" Mars ducked off to the side, "Y-you-you handle this! You're the thief, do your lock picking thing or whatever!"

"..." Neko pretended not to notice the his stammering, or slight shivering, and started attacking the locks on the shackles, "what exactly did they mean when they said 'extra orifice'?"

"He has a missing eye."

"Ew."

"Ew missing eye ew or..."

"Ew extra orifice thing ew."

"Oh. We've seen enough weird things for it to be something other than the one eye thing."

"Yup. Hey, help me with him."

"What!" he turned red, "wha-what exactly do you mean by that!"

"I mean aid me in moving him from here to the nearest source of cover so we can make him at least a little decent, and while you're at it, heal injuries, drama queen."

"Shut up! And do I have to?"

"What? Squeemish?"

"I don't like blood."

"Really? You'd think you'd seen enough of it by now to get over that fear."

"Actually it was seeing the massacure of all of my loved ones then being trapped in the middle of the carnage when it was all over and left to rot, while at the age of five, that brought about the fear in the first place." Neko winced,

"Ok, sorry."

"Not your fault." he shifted from foot to foot nervously for a second, then looked at Neko, "go find him some thing not covered in some type of gore to cover him with, I'll heal injuries."

"Ok." she wandered off to the side, Mars looked at Date, then started healing any prominant wounds he could find,

"welcome to my world, bud." he muttered. When Neko returned, he was sitting on the floor by the bed, "find anything?"

"No. Everything's dirty somehow. We'll have to settle with the sheets on the bed."

"You touch them."

"You."

"You."

"You."

"You."

"You infinity."

"Not fair."

"So?'

"I'll cry."

"So?"

"I'll light your elf's head on fire."

"Fine." she said, turning to the bed again, "but you owe me."

Biting her lip a little, Neko started to tear and rend the sheets, getting over her disgust and somehow making Date appear decent.

"Now...let's get the hell out of here."

"Agreed." Neko gently picked the one-eyed warlord up and they made for a quick exit, finding the group as quickly as possible.

* * *

"Wha!" Ranmaru started to say something, but either caught himself, or just gave up, Xun was silent, staring in some bit of shock, Mitsuhide was also silent, Link went to help Neko with her passanger, Sheik simply turned away a bit, and Nightmare was giving Mars a worried look, the youngest member of the group was somewhat pale, and looked more shaken up than he should have.

"Mars," Mars looked up when Nightmare spoke, "are you alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah, fine. I just...I just need a second." Mars said, looking into the room next to him, then wandering inside it, when they peeked in, they found him sitting on the floor, leaning back against a a small couch.

"Um, Mars..." Neko said, he looked at her, "why are you-/"

"Neko, just let him sit." Link said, "hey, can we put him down? He's heavier than he looks."

"If he's as similar to Mars as the rumors say he is, then you're probably very glad he didn't hear you just now." Sheik said, Mars stood up and walked away from the couch, Link and Neko carried Date into the room, laying him down.

"I'll...go get his clothes or something." Mars said, leaving the room quickly, Nightmare backed into the hall, watching him heading down the hall, going into the ballroom first.

"Neko, what exactly did you two find,aside from him?" Nightmare asked,

"nothing that should have been new to him, the same stuff as before..."

"He's coming apart too easily." Sheik said, "he wasn't like this before. What's going on?"

"Why exactly are you looking at me while you're asking that?" Nightmare asked, Sheik shrugged.

"You've known him longer than we have, and it's really no secret that he trusts you the most, so I figured maybe he said something to you."

"No, he doesn't generaly talk about himself. Until you three popped up, all I knew was his name and that he would be a big help to me."

"So we brought out the worst, and best, in him?" Neko said.

"I guess you could put it that way." he grinned a bit, "I was always just calling it you annoyed him to the point of cracking."

"Funny." Link said. "Hey, how long does it take to gather up clothes?"

"Um, not generally this long?" Xun said, catching on right away, "someone should probably go check on him."

"Mars!" Neko ran out of the room, down the hall, first poking her head into the evil room with the possessed door, then into the ballroom. "Guys, we have a problem."

"Don't say it." Nightmare said,

"well,"

"don't."

"He's gone."

* * *

TBC...

* * *

A/N: wow, one page longer than chapter four. This actually worked out rather well for me, a perfect cut off point. Anshi-chan wanted to break for a nap, lazy ass...so we had to stop there. And I have no ideas for chapter six, she will though, when her brain is all rested and rebooted and stuff. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a manic depressive vampire with a machine gun awaiting my absolute and total control over him. Ciao! 


	7. Chapter 6

The House

Ch. 6

Co-Authored By Azuril Noir Raine ( wait a minute, so the Norse guys named their gods after German Nazi things, and then Santa named his reindeer after Norse German Nazi dieties?)

Co-Authored By Anshi-chan (it's like someone took out my brain and replaced it with a one legged puppy.)

* * *

Neko tensed, her eyes widening.

"Neko, I know what you're thinking..." Sheik warned.

"Don't bother. She's going to go off anyways." Link replied, taking Neko's hand and kissing her cheek. "Be careful." He urged. Neko nodded. Lu Xun stepped forwards, sabers drawn and ready.

"Please, allow me to accompany you." He requested. Neko sighed.

"You'll end up following me anyways...won't you?"

"Yeah, pretty much." He replied. The cat-girl nodded. Xun looked back at the group, and then at Date. "Wash out his eye socket." He said before he and Neko vanished.

Sheik looked at Nightmare,

"he'll be alright, they'll find him." he said, Nightmare sighed heavily,

"I know that." he said, "I'm worrying about the time between them finding him and the time he vanished. A lot could happen to him between those two times."

"Raphael won't kill him," Link said, "we know that much. The Soul Edge isn't whole yet, and Mars is everyone's best resource for finding the rest of the pieces."

"Yes," Sheik said, "he is. He's too vital to kill or damage beyond a certain point. He's also far stronger than we give him creadit for. Maybe not physically powerful, but look at all that he's been through. He watched his family die when he was five, ran around orphaned until the age of sixteen, throughout that time, Raphael, selling himself, god knows what else happened to him."

"What's this Soul Edge?" Ranmaru asked, "I can't help but think I've heard the name before, but it's not quite close enough to the surface for me to remember correctly."

"The Soul Edge is my weapon, it was broken, scattered, and I am trying to recover all of the pieces." Nightmare said, "Mars comes from a rare bloodline-"

"Royalty?" Mitsuhide ventured, tending to Date. Nightmare shook his head.

"No, not royalty, though to some he is far more powerful than anyt ruler and worth far more than any jewel for his abilities." Link said, Nightmare took over again.

"Mars is the last of his kind, his family was wiped out completely, how he survived undamaged is still a mystery, even after eleven years. He can sense and pinpoint the location of the pieces of the Soul Edge, and is also a very powerful mage."

"Nightmare's Soul Edge is a very saught after blade, an evil sword," Sheik said, "that many would gladly covet as their own, or destroy completely. Really, from what I've seen during my travels with him, he seems to be the only one capable of properly wielding it."

"An evil blade?" Mitsuhide asked, looking at Nightmare, who nodded, "I have heard of this evil sword. Though it was said to have been wielded by someone known as the Azure Knight, not a man named Nightmare, and used solely for destruction."

"It was, and it still is wielded by the Azure Knight." Nightmare said, "though said knight has a better grip on the here and now than he did before."

"Then you're-"

"he's reformed." Link cut in, "to the point where all of our little group trust him with our lives, and I believe he trusts us with his, and to keep his former title a secret." Nightmare chose not to talk. "Now," Link continued, "let's move away from that. Though Mars healed all of his injuries, he hasn't really been washed off at all, why don't we move on to that, before he wakes up."

"Yes, right." Mitsuhide said, "should we send someone else to gather up and possibly repair any damage to his clothes?"

"Sheik and I will go." Link said, "you two consentrate on getting him cleaned up." he pointed to Mitsuhide and Ranmaru as he spoke, "and Nightmare will stand watch."

"To quote Mars," Sheik said, "wow, you sound like you know what you're doing."

"Shut up and come on." Link said, leaving the room, Sheik following silently.

"So they're from someplace that's nowhere near here, right" Ranmaru said, not wanting an awkward sience to cover the room in a creepy place like the one they happened to be in.

"Yes. Someplace called Hyrule. I know Link is Hylian, but he said once that Sheik was something different. Normally Sheik doesn't talk about himself. I think he was called a Sheikah. They're more of a mystery to all, I also heard he's one of the last of his kind."

"So your group's got endangered species in it?" Ranmaru said, Nightmare shrugged,

"I guess so. Link's horribly over protective of Sheik, at first Neko was driven to jealousy fuel dislike towards Sheik, but now she realized that he and Link are more like brothers, and I heard Link almost lost Sheik at several points in time. After everything we've been through, he just keeps a closer eye on him...though Sheik's by no means a pushover. Almost like an assassin in a way."

"Yes, he's surprisingly quiet, I noticed it before, you can't hear and noise when he moves, almost like a shadow." Mitsuhide said.

"Ask Link if you're still curious. I just told you everything I kow...or ask Mars, he reads enough to know most of everything."

* * *

"You seem more worried than you used to be whenever she left the group. What's on your mind?" Sheik asked, leaning against the doorframe of the room that randomly locked its occupants inside it, he was hoping on being able to catch the door, or break it, if it tried anything funny, Link was inside the room, gathering up Date's clothes and armor.

"This place has haunting memories for her too." Link said, finding himself again confiding in Sheik, "I'm worried about them possibly getting the better of her, or him using them against her. Plus now she has someone else with her to worry about, so she'll be both more careful and more stupid...especially when they find Mars, no matter what shape he's in."

"So you're worried about Lu Xun and Mars returning without her, informing us she traded herself for their freedom?"

"You're good."

"You're as easy to see through as glass."

"You're funny."

"Thank you." Sheik said, "my friend, you worry too much. As I stated when talking about Mars earlier, think of all of the things she's seen throughout her life, all of the things she's done, and all of the things I'm sure she hasn't shared with us. She and Mars are alike in the fact that they both are far more resilient than we give them credit for."

"I guess...you have a point."

"Don't worry, she will be fine."

* * *

"So, why'd you decide to come with me?" Neko asked, looking at Xun, "you could, and probably should, have stayed back by your boyfriend, um, uh..."

"Ranmaru. And it is because Mars and I, for all of the differances I'm noticing between us, are very similar, and very haunted."

"So you wanted to help him because you share his past wounds?" Neko asked, Xun nodded. "Makes sense."

"And you? You should have stayed by your fiancé."

"I couldn't. A whle back, after we found out about Raphael and what he did to Mars, I made a promise to him, to Mars, that I'd look out for him. I told him he could think of me as a sister, or family. And I think of him like my little brother. He's fragile and powerful at the same time, and I hate seeing him hurting."

"How very admirable." Xun said.

"I kind of felt it was the least I could do for him...you see, he was orphaned because my father killed his family. Apparently, he and Mars's family made a deal or a bet or something and they didn't keep up their end of the bargain-"

"So he killed them?"

"He let his temper get the better of him...and was so consumed by guilt after that that he killed himself, and left me with my psycho mother. Mars found out who I was to the man that had killed his family and he hated me for it...then Raphael appeared and we found out what had happened to Mars before Nightmare found him, and I traded myself for his safety, before that we had a bit of an argument and I bitchslapped him. After that he didn't necessarily find me a good and great friend but he didn't hate me. He started trusting me after the Raphael incident...he's an oddball, but I guess I can't blame him."

"I see." Xun said, "and Nightmare? Who is he? No bullshit please."

"He's...well, what do you mean? Who is he to us or who is he to the rest of the planet?" Neko said, "to us, he's a good friend, and I trust him with my life. But the rest of the world, if ever they found out who he really is, then there'd be mass panick."

"How's that?"

"Long story."

"t's probably going to be a long search."

"True." Neko said with a shrug, "ok, then, what do you want to know?"

Xun opened his mouth to ask when he fell silent, instead trotting over to a life-sized painting of Raphael and stabbing one of his sabers through the canvas.

"Find something?"

"I'll tell you when I find it." Xun replied, continuing to cut the canvas to ribbons until it was revealed that there was a hidden passage behind it. Neko blinked.

"Wow…never noticed that there before…dare I ask how?" Xun shrugged, stepping through the frame.

"I've just always had a sixth sense when it comes to hidden doors." He replied. Neko followed, keeping even pace behind the boy.

"Do you mind me asking…?"

"Where do you want me to start? Father died when I was 6, mother got killed a year later, my uncle sold me as a whore until I was 16 when I was rescued…lived life for a while and then the Weaver brought me to the House…lived there ever since." They walked in silence for a while, down the hallway. The temperature dropped considerably, though neither of them would dare admit it. Closer. Neko felt it. They were getting closer to him.

"We're getting closer. He's up ahead." she said, "get ready

"how do you know this?"

"I sense him."

"Which one of them?"

"Mars. He's up ahead."

"Ok." Xun said, getting his daggers ready.

* * *

"Link," Mitsuhide said, "come here, I have something I want to ask you."

"What?" Link asked, walking over to him, Date dressed and cleaned up. Mitsuhide looked at Nightmare for a second then at the Hylian.

"It's not diffuclt to see that he's worried about the mage, and it's also painfully obvious that Mars would give his life to see him happy, why don't they address it?"

"For this I have no real answer." Link said, "Mars is a confusing little spaz with a nasty temper and a passion for seeing things go boom. And Nightmare's a warrior used to being on his own and living by his own rules and methods. I don't think he's used to having a weakness like someone to protect. But none of us dares delve too deeply, he's not a good person to piss off."

"Which one?"

"Both. One's boardering on returning to that genocidal state of mind if ever angered and the other's got emense power, a hair trigger, a short fuse and a very long list of 'don't's."

"I see..."

"I must commend Nightmare though." Sheik said, joining the conversation, "he hasn't exausted himself thus far. And I have heard that mass genocide is one of the most exausting activities to engage in...next to soccer."

"I won't bother." Mitsuhide said, forcing the eyelids of Date's ruined eye open and beginning to wash out the offended socket with a pitcher of water. Once that task appeared finished, the boy woke, coughing and gasping as if he had been unable to breathe the entire time.

"Well…nice to see you're awake, sleeping beauty."

"Shove it Ranmaru." The boy in question started to say something, but decided against it for fear of losing his life. Link glanced at Sheik, giving him a look that said

"He seems strangely well recovered after his little meeting in hell."

* * *

Neko fiddled with the locks on the door, each of them clicking one right after the other.

"Ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"Good." One swift kick brought the door down, leading into a large and rather cozy-looking study. Xun darted past Neko, slipping into the room and looking around. "Mars?" Neko called, slowly stepping into the room. When no one answered, Xun immediately started looking for more secret doors. "Something is clearly not right here. Lu Xun, be careful." Neko warned, hopping onto the back of one of the armchairs as if it would give her more insight.

"I know, I know." Xun replied. It wasn't long before he found another door, though not in the way he had intended. Two doors on opposite sides of the room opened. One held Mars, and the other revealed Raphael.

"Mars!" Neko cried, rushing to the boy and scooping him up in her arms. Xun, on the other hand, put himself between the two and Raphael.

"Mars, Mars, say something, please! Please!" Neko cried, shaking him lightly, Xun spared a quick glance over his shoulder.

"Is he alright?"

"I think so, though...Date was in better condition than this when we found him...come on, Mars, wake up." a few seconds later, his eyes opened a tiny bit, "oh, thank fucking god! Say something, please! Bash me, insult someone, swear, something! Please!" he made a tiny noise, gripping her arm feebly. "Xun, any chance at us getting him out of here sans confrontation?"

"I don't know."

"Then think on it a bit!" she screamed, Mars whimpered and cringed, "shit...it's ok. I won't hurt you. It's me, Neko, Mars. Me and Xun, we're getting you out of here."

"Back up." Xun said suddenly, "slowly, but back up, towards the door."

"Ok." Neko said, standing up, Mars in her arms bridal style, she and Xun backing up at the same pace, Raphael walking forward as they backed away. "Do you think we can outrun him?" she asked, Xun seemed to think on it for a second.

"Maybe whoever doesn't have cargo will be fast enough, but that'll defeat the purpose of escape."

"Only a little." Neko said, "you take Mars, I'm lopping his third leg off and feeding it to him." Mars gripped her arm tighter, whining. "Ok, maybe we'll just back up."

"Why do you do this?" Xun asked suddenly, "the humiliation, the pain, the torture, it's inhuman and you seem to thrive off it. Why?"

"Do we want to know?" Neko said flatly.

"I enjoy it. It's really that simple." Raphael said, "and I still have use for the mage. Leave him and I might let you escape."

"I'm ignoring that." Neko said, "you've had your fun. You've broken him, you aren't getting that satisfaction again."

"Keep moving, Neko." Xun said, noticing she'd stopped while snapping at Raphael. She kept backing up, "when we've got him back by the others, then you can fume and rave all you wish, but until we're safe, save it please."

"Right." Neko said, "Nightmare's going to go out of his head when he sees this...maybe we're safer here."

"The Azure Knight worrying over a former whore, what an odd pair." Raphael said, Mars twitched the slightest bit, eyes still only slightly opened, locked onto Raphael with a threatening gleam in them, thin ice was being tread upon. "Hm, it would be helpful to have the Soul Edge that your sad little group possesses, and how easy it would be to get it from you, with just a simple threat. The Azure Knight has gotten weak upon taking on that pitiful charge in your arms. How sad." not even a second later, a familiar and well placed

BOOM!

gave them their chance to run.

* * *

When they got back to the group, Neko raised an eyebrow,

"Hey, he's up." she said upon noticing Date, who blinked a bit.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Ah," Sheik said, "how very Mars-like of him." then he noticed Neko's cargo. "Is that..."

"We-we were too late." Neko said quietly, guiltily, "he wanted to keep Mars, to use him to find the Soul Edge. But he pushed the wrong buttons on the wrong people."

"You're extremely lucky to have him with you." Xun said, looking at the trio of blonds in the room. "He cares about you very much."

"Enough to blow up a rapist upon hearing us insulted." Neko said, chosing not to mention the fact that it was a bit of bad-mouthing Nightmare that had set Mars off. Date moved off of the couch, Neko laid Mars down, then stepped back a bit. Though he was far more banged up and messy than Date had been, enough of the robe remained to act as some cover for him. "We should find a blanket or something, he's shivering." Neko said, "I'll go get one."

"Where from?" Sheik pointed out, "and not alone." he and Xun followed her out of the room to hunt down a blanket to cover Mars with. Link looked at Nightmare, who was silent, head bowed a bit, the Hylian chose to leave him be, afraid of possibly setting him off. He examined any injuries he could see without moving Mars in any way.

"Well," he said quietly, "at least you're alive." Mars only closed his eyes and turned his head away from them. When Neko,.Sheik and Xun returned they had a blanket with them, Neko covered Mars and stepped back, casting a quick glance at Nightmare, also deciding not to say anything to him. She looked at Sheik,

"Shei, help me with injuries. We can't just leave them open until he regains enough strength to heal them himself." Sheik gave a nod and joined her by Mars. After a long moment of silence, he spoke up,

"this isn't your fault, you are aware of this, right?"

"I-I know." she said,

"just making sure." he said. They both jumped back when Mars coughed heavily, eyes wide, sitting up quickly, covering his mouth with his hands. "Mars! Mars, breathe!" Neko said, taking a step back when he turned towards them, face turned towards the floor, gagging and vomiting. "That's all-"

"Blood." Sheik said, "and semen. If I remember one of our encounters with him, Raphael commented on Mars's razor tongue didn't he?"

"He-" Mars started, throwing up more, "he always did-" more coughing, "like my 'razor tongue'." more coughing, finally the coughing fit died down and he laid back down, eyes closed, "am I in hell or am I still alive?"

"Both by default." Neko said with a relived sigh, "are you in any huge amounts of pain?"

"My head, my stomach, my entire physical being..." he paused, "...but I think my pride and soul hurt more than anything else..."

"Well, of course your pride hurts," Neko said, "and I can't imagine you haven't been hurt inside before, old wounds are the worst kind."

"Where's..."

"we ran after you blew him up." Xun said, Neko then ventured her guess as to who he was talking about.

"He's right over there, I think still taking this all in. I'm sure he'll be over here when he's sure he's calm enough."

"Ok..." Mars said, a minute later, they knew he was sleeping.

"Let's sneak out into the hall." Neko whispered, "let him sleep."

"But what if..." Link said.

"We'll leave the door cracked." Neko said, then the group left the room.

* * *

TBC...

* * *

A/N: well, I got some of my own sick and twisted-y-ness going there for a tiny bit, in a mild sense. Next chapter coming up!

Mars: did you know I harbor a very strong dislike towards you?

ANR: oh how sweet I love you too.

Mars: you're just lucky your psycho boyfriend would kill me if I blew your twisted ass to hell.

ANR: my boyfriend is not psycho!

Mars: takes one to date one.

ANR: that does it, now I'm angry!

Mars: (o-o) runs away

ANR: picks up her pool cue and chases after him


	8. Chapter 7

The House

Ch. 7

Co-Authored By Azuril Noir Raine (i used my brain too much and now it huuuuurrrts!)

Co-Authored By Anshi-chan (I'll try to restrain my awesome desire to put the fear of all that is in him.)

* * *

Xun settled himself outside the door, as if he were the "stand-in" guard while Nightmare calmed down. The boy seemed to take inventory of his own past, keeping silent at the numerous similarities between himself and the mage. Neko glanced over at the silent tactician, sitting on Link's shoulders and petting his head. 

"You know, I think I should go for a walk or something." She muttered to herself. Link glanced up at her, then over at the rest of the group.

"We'll be right back." He said.

* * *

Once outside the mansion itself, Neko sighed a rather heavy sigh and seemed to droop. 

"Alright, love, what's wrong?" Link asked, still carrying her on his shoulders.

"I've just realized that I can't always protect the ones I care about." She said sadly, shifting so that she was sitting in his arms instead of on his shoulders. "I keep thinking that one day I'll screw up, and I won't be able to protect you." She said softly, nuzzling Link gently.

"Haven't you learned by now," Link said, half seriously joking, "we're all doomed to hellish existances on this planet, fate has a thing against us."

"Funny." Neko said flatly, He sighed,

"Neko, people get hurt everyday. It's life. And if we all haven't been broken yet, then we'll be able to hold out, for each other if nothing else." he said, "let's look at our group, I can't speak for the four that Mars dragged in with him, but I can say that the five of us have had more than a few hard times. Nightmare's a completely different level of broken and worn down, Mars has seen hell probably more times than all of us combined, you know your own story, I haven't exactly had the easiest of lives."

"And Sheik's the best off out of us." Neko said, Link shook his head, "no?"

"No. Sheik's had it as hard as all of us. He was a puppet for a pain in the ass that goes by the name of Zelda for a time, then there's the fact that he has no family, before me no friends, he told me once, when I was still playing hero, that until I came along, all he'd ever done was whatever he was told, nothing more nothing less. Then Raphael, then everything up until now. He's had it as hard as all of us have...maybe not as hard as Mars and Nightmare, but as hard as most of us nonetheless."

"Ok." Neko said, "it looks like I was mistaken."

"We do what we can and that's all there is to it. That's all we can do." Link said, "doubting yourself is exactly what none of us, you included, needs. Doubt fuels hesitation fuels falling deeper. All we can do is keep our heads above water." she gave a tiny nod, "now let's go back inside, it's cold out here."

"Maybe you wouldn't be as easily chilled if you wore proper clothes."

"How many times are we going to have this talk, it's a tunic, not a skirt." Link said sourly as he carried Neko back inside by the rest of the group.

* * *

Xun hadn't moved from his spot, being a rather loyal guard dog to the sleeping mage in the other room. Date didn't appear to be around, though no one seemed too worried. 

"He's off doing…whatever the hell he's doing." Sheik said coldly, leaning against the wall. Neko blinked in confusion and looked at her blonde.

"Is Mars still okay?"

"Yeah. He's still asleep, as of two minutes ago." Xun said, slowly lifting his head.

"Wait…you guys let the one-eyed rape-victim out on his own? Are you insane?" Link asked, setting Neko down.

"You try telling a Mars wannabe what to do. I'll stand back and watch." Sheik said, Link gave him a look that was torn between somewhat confused by his snippy attitude suddenly and worried for him because of said snippy attitude.

"You stood back and watched a second ago too." Ranmaru said, Sheik glared at him, Link put a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"You ok? What's with the attitude suddenly?"

"He had a bit of a verbal catfight with Date before he lost his temper and decided not to care." Nightmare explained, Link gave a tiny nod, then looked at Nightmare.

"And you're ok now?"

"As ok as someone like me can be I guess." Nightmare said with a shrug, "are you two?"

"We're good." Neko said, "so, I bring up my elf's point again, whose bright idea was letting the 'Mars wannabe' run loose again?"

"Well, after an argument, it's not really anyone's individual idea, it just kind of was the result." Mitsuhide said, looking down the hall, they guessed that was the direction Date had gone in.

"Worried?" Neko asked, grinning, "if anything, we'll go look for him in a few."

"A few what?" Sheik said, "hours? Days? Seconds?"

"Your attitude irks me." Ranmaru said, Sheik flipped him off, leaving Nightmare hiding an amused smirk, Neko laughing, and Link staring oddly at the Sheikah boy.

"You just gave someone the finger." Link said, Sheik nodded.

"That I did."

"You don't normally do that. In fact, you never do that."

"I'm allowed to be out of character while standing down the hall from the room I was mercilessly raped in...and the rooms of my nightmares all the way down the hall up to that randomly locking room."

"Ok, valid argument." Link said, "so, should we go look for him?"

"Who?"

"Date."

"Oh. Probably."

"Who's staying here?" Link asked, "I think we already know Nightmare is."

"I'm staying too." Xun said, Neko shrugged,

"I'll go. There's no point in a gigantic search party going out. And we really don't have enough people to make up two groups of any type. So let's see..."

"And, we'll kill your ingenious idea before you make an idiot of yourself by saying it, you are not going it alone so don't even try it." Link said, she pouted, "ok, in Neko's brain's leave of absence, I'll break us up. Who's going for one thing?"

"I guess I will." Sheik said with a sigh.

"Ok. Why don't we leave the group small and let Neko, Sheik and myself go, the rest of you wait here."

"Excuse me," Mitsuhide said, "but I'm going with you."

"Eh?" Neko said, then she, Sheik and Link exchanged quick glances, then looked at Mitsuhide, "whatever."

"And then there were 4. Alright. Then I say that Sheik and I go together, and Neko you can go with Mitsuhide." Link says firmly. Neko sighed and decided to not argue at the moment. She nodded to the samurai and the two headed off down one hallway.

* * *

"So…you're what? 24? What do you see in someone like Date? It can't possibly just his good looks." Neko said, rolling her eyes. Mitsuhide shrugged. 

"I guess it's him in general. I can't quite pinpoint it."

"Even though you know he probably isn't even interested in you?"

"Yeah."

* * *

Link sighed and stretched his arms, trotting after Sheik. 

"Alright, what's wrong with you? I know you hate being here and all the nightmares we've had since, but something is wrong with you." Sheik shrugged at the comment and didn't quite respond right away. Link crossed his arms, feeling slightly annoyed. "What did you two fight about? The past? Or were you both just bitching about something else?"

"I really don't see why we should go into it now that the argument's over and done with." Sheik said, looking around, "why didn't you keep us in a group? And, if you were going to split us up, why not go with Neko?"

"What? You don't like being by me?" Link teased, Sheik shook his head.

"It's not that. I'm just surprised you don't want to spend time with your fiance...and you're not worried about her doing something stupid if given the oportunity."

"Oh, I'm worried, and I want to spend time with her, but I also am trying to keep in mind that I do have friends to spend time with as well. You sound like you're expecting me to spend all of my time with her."

"Part of me, I guess, was expecting that."

"Well, sorry to disappoint."

"I'm used to it."

"Hey!"

* * *

"So...got anything?" Neko asked, looking around the large lounge-like room they were in, "cuz I'm coming up dry. Where the hell could he have gone?" 

"I don't know. And no, I don't have anything."

"Hey, did you ever think of asking him what he thinks of you?"

"Eh?"

"Date. Ever think of asking him what he thinks of you? Or maybe asking him out on a date?"

"You're funny. And no."

"afraid of damaging your pride?"

"No. Just afraid of-"

"being turned down? Well, get over it. Shit happens. Either he screws you over and you mope about it, he screws you over and you get over him, he makes your day worth living and you wonder what you were thinking even talking to him, or he makes your day worth living and you enjoy every moment of it. It can't be anything else than any of those."

"Thank you for clearing that up for me, oh guru of romantic wisdom."

"You know what, shut up."

* * *

"It's awkwardly silent around here. I hate it, it's creepy." 

"Well, your complaining is filling the void rather nicely."

"Shut up."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing."

"..." Xun shook his head a bit to keep himself awake, Ranmaru's complaining had been silenced by Nightmare rather easily...the tactician was thinking of asking the Weaver if she'd drag Mars's friends in to live with them...or at least Nightmare, he seemed to be able to very easily put an end to any annoyances that happened to arise among any of the group members, the group he'd traveled with or the group he just met. In a sense, Xun was somewhat reminded of Mitsuhide, though Mitsuhide didn't give off a somewhat creepy vibe.

"Xun," Nightmare said suddenly, "is he awake?" Xun peaked into the room Mars was in, then moved away from the door, a few seconds later, a pallid, tired, and eerily silent Mars wandered into the hallway, looking almost as though he was sleepwalking. "Mars?" Mars looked at Nightmare when he heard his name, "are you positive you're awake?"

"No." he said simply, sounding rather dazed. "Where am I?"

"Please don't have cracked on me, Mars." Nightmare said, "you haven't been moved from the mansion."

"Why? The last place I want to be is here."

"None of us still want to be here." Xun said calmly, Mars looked at him, grey eyes flat and dull. "You-you should probably rest more."

"No. The nightmares kept me awake anyway." Mars said tiredly, "they stopped for such a long time. I slept for such a long time, peacefully. Now I'm going to have to work at it more again."

"Eh?" Ranmaru said, Nightmare sighed heavily.

"When I first found him, he wouldn't relax at all, not even for a second, after a week, he at least wasn't tense all the time, he still didn't sleep though. Then, two weeks later, he slept, but it was always hard to keep him asleep for over five minutes, he'd wake screaming and crying. He never once told me what had him so scared, he'd clam up and try to sleep again whenever I asked him. Then, about three days before we met Neko and Link, he stayed asleep, he didn't wake up at all during the night, didn't scream, didn't cry from anything he saw while asleep. Now I can only assume that it was memories and not just bad dreams that kept him up at night."

"It's a sad existence I live." Mars said bitterly, "but I try my best and that's all anyone's ever getting from me."

"You're coming to a bit more now, aren't you?" Nightmare said lightly, sounding relieved.

"I'm awake enough to insult people. Does that count?"

"I never thought I'd be happy to hear you mouthing off."

"There's a first time for everything." Mars said, then he swayed a bit and staggered back to a wall, leaning against it, "my back hurts..."

"Are you sure you should be up and walking around then?"

"Well, sitting still isn't going to do it any good now is it?"

"Humor me." Nightmare said, leading Mars back in by the couch. Xun and Ranmaru watched them for a second then exchanged glances.

"It's hard to believe that's the Azure Knight, isn't it?" Ranmaru said quietly, Xun nodded.

"Very hard to believe."

"Hey,"

"huh?" Xun and Ranmaru followed the sound of the very familiar voice. "Date?!"

Date looked paler than normal, and his eye had dulled somewhat. He was leaning against the wall, trying to hide something. Xun tensed, immediately smelling blood. He jumped to his feet, slowly walking towards the One-Eyed Dragon. Date looked past him, at Mars.

"Are you feeling alright, kid?" He asked.

* * *

"God. How the hell does that little bastitch do it?" Neko grumbled, crawling over a fireplace looking for hidden doors and other such compartments. Mitsuhide laughed to himself. 

"Lu Xun has always had a sixth sense when it came to hidden things." He replied. Neko growled a little and opened the windows.

"Words cannot soley describe how much I want to jump onto a tree and run away…but I know better."

* * *

"Sheik, seriously, talk to me. We're friends. We should be able to tell each other something if it's bugging us. I know something's wrong." Link insisted, looking at the paintings on either side of the hallway. 

"Nothing's wrong. I'm fine. Do you see anything?"

"You're lying. And no."

"ok, so something is wrong, I just...think it's a bit childish that's all."

"What could possibly be considered childish that would have someone like you this bothered by it?"

"It's just...nothing, I just...seem to be gaining a phobia of our surroundings that's all."

"That's not childish considering what's happened here. And it's also not what's wrong."

"Ok, you win. Honestly, I think it's the uneasy growing with every second I spend here poking at a childish bit of jealousy."

"Jealousy? For who?"

"Tch, I think it's just the fact that I'm the one watching all of the romances and feeling a bit left out. Like I said, it's childish and I shouldn't be feeling this irked about something so stupid. That and I simply find Date to be an agitating little creature that's really the majority of it."

"I'll buy that."

* * *

Mars blinked a bit, as though surprised that someone aside from Nightmare, Neko, Aheik, Link or Xun would speak to him. 

"As alright as I ever will be I guess. I can't expect too much more than that can I?"

"Something's...off, that's all. The brat I met before wasn't this broken down. And there's just something different there with you. I can't place it, but there's something there that wasn't before."

"Date, what happened to you? I smell blood. What are you hiding?" Xun asked.

Date turned towards the group, still leaning against the wall.

"Oh my god…" Ranmaru squeaked, looking at the extent of the young man's new injuries. The right half of his body seemed like he was attached my some clawed fiend---though the injuries were born from a rapier.

"I just…He found me…and I wanted to protect you…he's still here…" Date's thoughts are somewhat incoherent, though it is easy to figure out what he means.

* * *

Link's eyes dimmed. 

"I'm sorry if you feel that way, but getting married was my decision. I know you're probably not happy with that fact, but nothing is going to change between us. We'll still be friends, and I'll still need your help."

Sheik allowed a smile to pass over his lips.

"Yes, I know it was your choice, I know it's what you want. Link, you must understand though, remember, you were the first person to actually care about me. I only have you, Neko, Mars and Nightmare. I know you won't leave me behind, as I said a second ago, it's childish and petty and I'm well aware of that fact." he stopped moving and put his hands on his hips, "and I'm also well aware of the fact that we haven't found anything yet...that seems odd, with the type of individual that we're looking for, we shoudl have found something by now. Let's go find Neko and Mitsuhide, or the rest of the group, whichever comes first."

"Right. And what do you mean type of person?"

"Where as you were interacting with people, I was simply standing back and watching them. I learned at a very young age how to read people. And Date is not a quiet person, though it doesn't take a genius to figure that one out."

"Yeah, yeah, let's go."

* * *

"Well, I'm stumped." Neko said bluntly, "what do you say we head back for the group. I'm sure Link and Sheik found him, or he wandered back, or something, im worried about Mars, I wanna see if he's up yet or not." 

"Perhaps you're right." Mitsuhide said tiredly, "let's go."

* * *

"Protect...what?" Mars said, sounding, again, surprised that someone outside of his tiny group of friends cared at all about him, and at the same time, he sounded shaken up, as though Date's earlier statement, and knowing glance, had frightened him. "H-Here, i'll...I'll see if I can heal that up..." 

Date shook his head and sank to the floor. His eye dimmed and there was a faint smile on his face.

"No. It's alright…he wanted me to give you a message though…he doesn't want you anymore…he thinks that I can help…and I don't want that bastard hurting you anymore."

"What?" was the confused sound as Neko and Mitsuhide returned to the room.

"Date!" Mitsuhide cried, sprinting across the room towards the young warlord.

"Holy hell, dare I ask what happened?" Link asked, upon the group's re-entry.

"I-I'm not...entirely sure what just happened here...but..." Mars hurried over to Date, dropping down onto his knees, "but you're an idiot if you think I'll listen when someone tells me not to do something." he said, healing what he could, "you stupid, stupid, stupid moron. If this was about keeping him away from me, then you should have fucked it over and hauled ass back here. I-I really only have a few uses, none of which I find worth saving. And what the hell do you mean he thinks you can help? What the hell's going on here?"

"Mars, calm down." Neko said, "you'll just overdo it and hurt yourself."

"Pain is good for you. It lets you know you're alive." Mars said distractedly. "And, no, you daren't ask what's going on...I really couldn't tell you even if I tried."

"Mars, calm down. I'm not saying it again." Neko said, "what did you mean you only have a few uses that you're not proud of?"

"I'm only usefull when I'm either looking for the Soul Edge, on my knees or on my back, or healing you morons whenever you pop up mauled beyond recognition. What the hell made you think protecting something like me was a good idea?"

"Mars, you're babbling, and crying." Nightmare said, somewhat worrying for the young mage.

"I'm sorry. I just...I..." he hid his face behind his hands, crying. "I just...don't know what...what to do anymore..."

* * *

TBC...

* * *

A/N: well, what am I hiding with Mars? What has him so freaked out? And just how evil am I going to be to the poor child? 

Mars: very and you know it.

Zykan: (a character from another series I'm working on) welcome to my world, kid.

Mars: who the hell are you?

Zykan: I'm evil, death and darkness incarnate, but you can call me Zykan.

Mars: (o-0) ok. And what do you mean 'welcome to my world'?

Zykan: you know very well what I mean.

Mars: no I don't!

Zykan: did you know that you can't hide anything from darkness and evil? I read minds. And I've been in your position before...way more times than I care to count. And guess what I got out of it.

Mars: a cramp in your back?

Zykan: well, yes, that and-

(the sound of a baby crying is heard)

Zykan: fuck. (leaves the room, comes back a minute later carrying a red-headed baby boy) what's up? Hungry? Tired? Starved for attention? I don't speak baby.

Mars: whose is that?

Zykan: um, this is what I got out of it.

Mars: then you got a girlfriend, or at least some chick pregnant.

Zykan: um, well, no. someone got me pregnant.

Mars: (0-o) how does that work? You're a dude.

Zykan: yes I am. And you really don't want to know.

ANR: Zykan, maybe this talk is best left for off camera.

Zykan: whatever. I have a kid to feed. (leaves the room)

Mars: (o-o) what was that?

ANR: my pride and joy, Zykan. (n.n)

Mars: he's a mother?!

ANR: oh, yes.

Mars: (o-o)

ANR: (n.n)


	9. Chapter 8

The House

Ch. 8

Co-Authored By Azuril Noir Raine ("my cousin likes guns." "is that supposed to bring comfort?")

Above Hypothetical Conversation Co-Created By Aramis Thorongil (You're just gonna smell me and walk away?)

Co-Authored By Anshi-chan (i have men in my bed)

* * *

Date smiles faintly and reaches out to pet Mars gently, and pushes him away. 

"Don't. I'm not worth your trouble." He insists. "I see a lot of myself in you, and I couldn't let that bastard hurt you anymore."

Mars gained a confused note to his voice, though it was still heavy with sorrow.

"A lot of...yourself? What? What do you...what do...what...?" after a second of silence, he broke down crying again. Neko looked expectantly at Nightmare, who sighed heavily and gently pulled Mars to his feet, tensing for a second when the young mage turned on him and clung to him, still crying. After a second of looking completely lost to the situation, he tried quieting Mars. Neko looked at Link, then Sheik,

"Hey, help me with him. Mars healed the vital stuff, we can bandage the rest and get him back to that House to rest."

"Right." Link said, Sheik gave a nod, then followed Link over to where Neko was now crouched down by Date.

* * *

When everyone was back at the House, Neko downed half of the bottle of wine she'd found in one swig. She was the only one with a drink in the room, perched on a small book shelf, the couch Link and Sheik were sitting on was only a few feet from the shelf, Nightmare was standing, Xun was sitting on the couch by Link and Sheik, Ranmaru was in a chair, Mitsuhide was pacing and Mars and Date weren't present. Mars was upstairs, by Date. The mage hadn't left the older boy's bedside since they returned, Date being unconscious, sleeping. 

"Nightmare," Neko said, looking at the blond in question, "shouldn't you be up by Mars?"

"No. He wouldn't want anyone there. I know that much." Nightmare said, watching Mitsuhide pacing around, Ranmaru was also watching the pacing warrior, Xun was watching Neko down the rest of the wine, then she went to hunt down more alcohol.

"Nothing beats da hooch." she said upon her return with another bottle of random alcohol. "So," she resumed her perch, "what do you propose we do?" Sheik shook his head a bit.

"Mars isn't in any condition to leave with us. And that's assuming that Weaver chick will even let us take him back with us." he said, Neko raised an eyebrow.

"I'd like to see this Weaver, face to face." she said, Nightmare raised an eyebrow,

"are you sure about that?" he said, "I don't know if I want to meet someone that could so easily sneak him away from us in the first place."

"Part of me agrees, the rest of me wants to negotiate getting Mars back, then get the hell out of here." Sheik said.

The great doors swung open, and Weaver slowly staggered in. She was limping a bit, and holding her arm over her stomach area. There was blood pouring down her front. She looked at the group, though the passes them over in favor of limping towards the bathhouse.

"Shit! Weaver! Are you alright?" Mitsuhide asks. She smiled sadly.

"Just a fight with my elder brother."

* * *

Date groaned, slowly returning to the world of the awake. He slowly glanced over at Mars, a faint smile coming to his face. He reached his hand out towards the mage. 

"Hey kid…how are you feeling?" His voice was strained and cracked, his vocal cords sounding like he had been almost strangled. "Don't look at me that way kid…come on, talk to me."

"R-Right. Sorry." Mars said quietly, "and to answer your question, I feel like shit. Take it easy ok?" Date sighed, "you sound like you need a drink."

"I don't drink."

"I expected a sarcastic answer. I'll go grab you some water." he got up and left the room, making it halfway down the stairs when the Weaver limped by down below him, "what the hell happened to her?"

"She said a fight with her older brother." Neko said, on her third bottle of random alcohol.

"I didn't know she had any siblings." Mars said distractedly, heading for the kitchen.

"Is now really the time to be getting a snack?" Ranmaru said, Mars left the kitchen a second later carrying a glass of water.

"And it's not for me." he said after a second of silence. Then he headed up the stairs again.

"Right then," Neko said, "let's work on our argument as to why she should let us take Mars with us."

"I don't know if he even wants to leave anymore." Link said, "he doesn't act like this, not in any situation. I think these guys grew on him a bit...or at least Xun and Date anyway. I can't imagine his dislike towards Ranmaru has changed any."

"And Mitsuhide is just in the 'no go boom' zone." Sheik said, "let's wait then, talk to the Weaver, she has to have something to say for this whole thing. From what I hear and gather she started this whole grouping."

"Yes, that sounds about right." Link said, "now, for those of you who actually really care, has anyone noticed something drastically different about Mars?"

"You mean besides the lack of rude and witty retorts, any type of personality at all, most of his skin pigment, all of his former zeal, and his now dependant and somewhat clingy attitude?" Sheik sais, "no, not a thing."

"Funny. Something's wrong with him. And I don't mean the obvious. It's nto an actual illness, I know that much."

"Well, then what do you make of it?" Neko asked, he shook his head.

"I don't know. His entire presence has changed, doubled in a way..."

"Doubled? What?" Xun said, confused.

"It's almost like there was another being there..." Link said, "that's the only real way I can put it."

"Well, that helps us little to none." Neko said, "Sorry, love, but it really doesn't add much to our cause."

"What exactly is our cause?" Sheik pointed out.

"Getting Mars out of here, with his one hundred percent consent, and making sure we didn't leave too much aftermath for these poor people to deal with." Neko said, "that's our cause."

"Oh, my bad."

* * *

"You didn't have to..." Mars started, but he gave up on it. 

"Didn't have to what?" Date was sitting up now, the empty glass that had once held water was on the bedside table.

"Didn't have to...to protect me. You really didn't."

"I wanted to. If I want to do something, I do it." Date said, "that's really all there is to it. So you're at least physically alright, right?"

"Yeah. Not in any pain anymore...my entire body was on fire I hurt so much before...thank god that's faded at least."

"I hear ya."

"And you? Is there still an outstanding amount of pain?"

"Not so much outstanding as deffinetly still there."

"Oh, of course, there's such a big difference."

"There really is."

"If you say so."

"And I do."

"And you're sure you don't want me to just heal your injuries? It's not a big thing you know."

"If it's not a big thing then why are you making it out to be?"

"Good point." Mars sighed, "I got here before, and automatically wanted to go back to the group of friends I knew and loved...but, then _he_ showed up and I couldn't leave them. I couldn't just leave with him running around torturing you all. Then...Xun...and now you...I'm finding more people that actually seem to care about me, that I can relate to. It doesn't make sense to me still...I went for so long not trusting anyone, then Nightmare appeared and I learned to trust someone, then Neko and Link appeared...and I had someone who cared about me, then Sheik joined the group, and all four of them actually wanted to keep me safe, and I wanted to keep them safe. Then the Weaver took me here, and I had every intention on sneaking out of here at the first open chance. But now I can't. Now I actually care about what happens to you guys, I actually care, and I figure whenever that happens, it's something worth seeing through to the bitter and often messy end."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Date fell silent for a moment.

"I was almost the same way. But then I met Xun, and fell in love. But then…" His voice trailed off as he slowly sat up. "After I was…raped the first time…Mitsuhide carried me home, and I wanted to see Xun first---to tell him I was alright…but I got the door closed in my face, and he told me that he couldn't love me anymore. I was just…completely destroyed…But somehow I wanted to continue. I wanted to keep on living here. I had nowhere else to go otherwise. Then, when that bastard was raping me again, he kept saying how I was like you, and how he wanted to sell me…and I decided that I never wanted anyone to go though what he threatened. I know you have…but that doesn't mean that you have to go through it again. So I want to protect you…because I guess I've started to care about you…"

Mars turned somewhat pink, then looked at the glass on the table.

"So he...just closed the door in your face? Nothing else? I would have thought...he'd be a bit more forgiving. But I guess we all deal with things differently. S-sell you, he said? You're right...it was hell. A hell I wish no one else had ever had to experience. And part of me blames myself for leaving. For letting him get the chance...to put someone else through that hell." he gave a tiny laugh, full of self-loathing, "who'd have thought though that I'd leave a lasting impression on a bastard like him. I was always told I was a different one." he looked at Date then,"I'm glad though, that there's someone who cares about me the way I'm finding out people apparently do. I never thought, after my family was killed, that anyone would care about a pathetic little creature like me again. Thanks. And I mean that. Thank you."

* * *

"So we have it figured out." Neko said, "We wait until Date's all put back together then we leave with Mars. Now all we have to do is get that by the Weaver." 

"If she ever decides to grace us with her presence again." Sheik muttered, "she's taking a while, isn't she?"

"Well, she was pretty banged up. Give her some time." Link said. "Think someone should go check on Mars and Date?"

"Probably." Neko said, looking at Nightmare, who gave her a 'nope' look. "Tight-ass." she muttered. "Xun, you go. Mars won't eat your head right off your shoulders if you catch him at a bad moment. He likes you."

"A crowning achievement, be assured of that much." Sheik said. Xun shook his head.

"I'll wait here for the Weaver."

"Then who's going?" Link asked, all eyes were on Mitsuhide. "You have been nominated by the majority to go upstairs and risk being blown up."

"Oh, goody." Mitsuhide muttered, heading upstairs. When he got to the door to the room Date and Mars were in, he overheard a tiny bit of their conversation.

"So I want to protect you…because I guess I've started to care about you…"

* * *

TBC...

* * *

A/N: this ended where it did because it's, as of the moment of my writing this, 12:47 AM and Anshi-chan and I both have classes tomor-today. So we are going night-night now. 

Mars: so now someone's got a crush on me?

ANR: I dunno. I don't know how she meant that to sound. That was her part not mine. That's why I remain indifferent on the whole matter.

Mars: what? Homophobic?

ANR: what? No, silly boy, not hardly! (n.n) I'm just not in the mood to mess with it right now cuz I'm tired. (yawn)

Zykan: gee, wish I could sleep right now.

Mars: why can't you?

Zykan: one guess. (trying to shush his son, who is whining and crying.)

ANR: (covering her ears) oh, geezes, with the noise in the head, gaooh! (glares at baby) make the baby-enduced noises stop! I must have sleepies!

Zykan: being loud won't help me get him to sleep! Shut the hell up and maybe this'll go faster!

ANR: noisy little baby-head! (crawls into bed and hides under blankets)


	10. Chapter 9

The House

Ch. 9

Co-Authored By Azuril Noir Raine (it's a rock in need of an exorcism!)

Co-Authored By Anshi-chan (we send baked goods)

* * *

Mitsuhide froze, his entire form going pale. He stepped back from the door, his hand over his mouth. Did he just…? Had he been wasting his time? He couldn't even go inside. He turned and headed back downstairs.

"Did he kill you? Hell, you look like shit." Neko noted as the samurai returned. Mitsuhide just growled a little in response.

"They're fine. Probably making out or something." He grumbled. Neko and Link and Sheik exchanged confused looks.

"You go." They all said at once, pointing to each other.

* * *

Date shifted the pillowed behind his back and closed his eye briefly. "Mars, when I was 8, I had smallpox. It infected my eye, and in order to prove to my father that I wasn't weak…I ripped it out. Because of that, my mother thought I was a demon. She and my brother tried to kill me…several times. I don't even remember what saved me…" He paused, opening his eye and coughing a little. He wiped the flecks of blood from his hand and his lips before continuing. "And what's worse…is my relatives decided to try to control me by kidnapping my father…so I took my clan's army and set out to rescue him…I was 16 at that point…and I…I was forced to kill my own father…I know it was an order, but words cannot simply describe the loathing and the hate I felt." His voice trails off again, biting his lower lip. He looked up at Mars and smiled sadly. "I know we both haven't had the best lives…but that doesn't mean that we need to give up…I feel like shit but that won't stop me from trying to protect you…"

* * *

"Three out four!" Neko whined, Sheik and Link exchanged tired glances, "Come on, throw em down!" Neko snapped,

"One." Link said,

"Two." Sheik added,

"Three!" Neko finished, then she gave a frustrated cry, "Nooooo! Four out five!"

"Neko, you lost...again." Sheik said, Link gave a nod.

"This is getting rediculous. Just go already." he said, she whined.

"Can't Nightmare go?"

"What? With a report like the one we just got? Not a chance in hell." Sheik whispered, "any deaths that may result won't be accidental and you know it." then he pointed to the stairs. "Go."

"I hate all of you." she grumbled, standing up and heading for the stairs. Link allowed a grin to cross over his face.

"She'll be doing all the work from now until the Soul Edge is whole." he said, Sheik nodded,

"She always throws down scissors. You'd think she'd catch on by now." he said. Xun was silently looking at Nightmare, who was looking in the direction Neko had disappeared in. Unease was clear in his features.

* * *

Neko gently knocked on the door. Upon receiving permission, she slowly opened the door to see Mars now sitting on the edge of the bed, and Date awake and sitting up. Even scarier was the fact that they were both smiling.

"Did hell just freeze over? Mars, you're not killing anyone!" She teased, walking over and hopping onto the other side of the bed.

"I can be peaceful when I want to be!" He shot back. Date sighed.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah…we were just worried about you. The Weaver came back. She wasn't looking so hot." Date's eye flickered in fear.

"Wyrm." He said softly.

* * *

Xun slowly stood up.

"I'm going to check on the Weaver." He said. Link and Sheik jumped.

"Oh my god! He speaks!" Sheik teased, though he fell silent with the unusually harsh glare he received from the tactician. He strode from the room and into the bathhouse. The Weaver was inside, and there was blood all over.

"Wyrm?"

"Indeed, and he's getting more creative…go tell that little group of adventurers that Mars is free to leave whenever he wishes…they don't need to argue." She paused, rising from the bath and revealing the gaping hole in her abdomen. "Why are you standing here? Go!"

Xun turned away quickly, running out of the bath house, slowing to a walk when he returned to the rest of the group.

"She said no need to argue with her, you can take him with you whenever you want to-"

"if he wants to leave." Mitsuhide muttered sourly, Xun gave him a curious look.

"And what's wrong with you? You've been rather bitchy ever since you came back from checking on Date and Mars."

"From the sounds of our earlier report," Sheik said, "he either heard or saw something rather unnerving to think about."

"What part?" Link asked,

"Mars in the entire situation. For some odd reason, it unnerves me to put him in any of the odd situations Mitsuhide's earlier statement implied could be ongoing up there."

"Ok, yeah, that is a little weird...the Mars part." Link said. Nightmare didn't speak, and the air of uneasyness hadn't lifted from him.

"I'm going to tell the three upstairs." Xun said, part of him wanted to send someone else, but he decided nto to involve anyone that didn't feel like standing up or moving too much.

* * *

Neko, Mars and Date looked towards the door when someone knocked on it, Xun poked his head in.

"The Weaver sends you a message, Mars, Neko."

"Oh, do tell." Neko said, turning to face him.

"She said that you're free to take Mars and go whenever you please."

"Then why the hell'd she kidnap me in the first fucking place?!" Mars snapped, "I don't like her!"

"Not too loud! She's not in a good mood right now, and she isn't one to annoy even when she starts out in a good mood." Xun cautioned.

"Whatever. So I can leave whenever I feel like it?"

"Yes."

"Ok."

"We go now?" Neko asked, Mars looked at her for a moment, then at Xun, then Date, then he shook his head.

"No. No, we no go yet."

"You're mocking me aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Figures you'd say exactly what I didn't think you would." Neko said, "fine. But I think bad blood's brewing between you and Mitsuhide, and watch what you say, I don't think he's the 'tease when upset' kind of guy. And Nightmare's looking a bit out of it too."

"He what?" Mars looked at her quickly, "is he alright?"

"Who, Mitsuhide or Nightmare?"

"Funny."

"I dunno. He just looks kinda on edge."

"I-I should go see if it's my fault."

"Mars," Neko said, putting a hand on his shoulder when he moved to stand up, "stay here. I think I know what's going on. I'll talk to him...and possibly Mitsuhide, but I dunno there...and everything will be peaches and cream, ok."

"What?"

"It's my process, leave me alone."

"Ok." Mars said, turning back to Date, "whatever..."

"Hey!"

"She didn't kidnap you." Date says quietly, looking away. Mars and Neko both gave him rather puzzled looks.

"She takes in the broken, the abused, the hopeless and the utterly destroyed, and she helps fix what has been broken." Xun adds, sitting down next to the bed.

"I guess we're all broken, aren't we?" Neko says, curling up on the edge of the bed as if she wanted to fall asleep.

"Oh no. No sleeping here. Your fiancé might get jealous. And I don't need an angered elf on my hands." Date said half jokingly.

"Then he can come get me…I feel tired…" Neko replies. Mars rolls his eyes and hops off the bed.

"Fine, I'll go get him."

"I'm warning you…they're not exactly happy with you right now…I'll come with you so Mitsuhide doesn't decide to kill you." Xun said, standing as well and keeping a waiting hand on his sabers. Mars nodded, and the two started for the door. Upon opening the door, The Weaver limped past, still holding her hand over the bleeding wound. She didn't even bat an eye at the two young men, just staggered off towards the east wing.

"Won't ask." Mars said, "and why are people out for my head? What'd I do?"

"I'm really not sure. As far as I know nothing, as far as the two elves know, nothing, as far as Mitsuhide, I really don't know why he suddenly hates you, and as far as Nightmare, I don't know him well enough to be able to tell if he's even upset any."

"I have known him for a while and he's still hard to read." Mars said, "he treats me so well, and he's so careful with me, but I keep remembering, I'm only a tool to find the Soul Edge. I'm not sure what he'll do with me when it's whole again...but that's not what makes it so hard to be near him..."

"I understand. You really have a stronger hold on him than you think. He was worried while you were asleep in the mansion, and I don't believe he would have worried about a tool as much as he did you. You are far more valubale than you think...but you didn't hear it from me. Though I see his human side, I am thinking of the side that is not completely sane and my own well-being at the same time."

"He's not the violent insane monster that everyone seems to think he is." Mars said, "I know who he is, I knew from the second I saw him for the first time, and I was expecting pain, I really was. Blood, pain, killing mercilessly, but he didn't, we just wandered around, no slaughter, no injuries to myself, he even seemed to care a bit about my well-being mentally as well as physically. I've only ever seen him angry once, it was a rather frightening ordeal don't get me wrong there...but he was so...he knew what he'd done, he felt guilty, again, he isn't a monster. And I find myself, every now and then, wishing he was, then maybe I wouldn't have fallen for him..."

Xun smiles and pats Mars on the shoulder.

"I know how you feel. But I wouldn't worry at all. I can tell these things, like a sixth sense. He has a good heart." Mars blinked a moment.

"Why did you close the door on Date?" Xun's eyes dimmed.

"There was…another man…his name was Wander. I returned from a little errand I had run for the Weaver, and found that Wander had been killed. The Weaver gave me a book, one that told all of Wander's life. His emotions, his hidden thoughts, everything. I read it through, and realized how much he had loved me…I realized that I couldn't continue to love Date with all I had discovered…"

"But he had just come back from being…"

"I know. I know the timing was terrible, but I couldn't keep it in. I had to tell him…I've always been terrible at timing. But I'm happy that he seems to have gotten over it a little, because I don't want to hurt him…not after that." Xun finished just as they returned to the main group.

Mars smiled knowingly,

"I get it. But maybe you should have explained that to him, he has it in his head that you simply either got tired of him, or thought way less of him because of...well, you should probably work it out wiht him at some point is all I'm saying."

* * *

Link and Sheik looked away from Mitsuhide,

"Hey, you're not dead." Link said jokingly, "good. I don't want to have to deal with Neko and Nightmare on a double downer."

"Speaking of your fiancé," Mars said, pretending he didn't have an ever so faint blush on his face, "she's sleeping in another man's bed, you might want to move her, he doesn't appreciate her taking up his personal space."

"Eh?!" Link stood up and ran upstairs. Xun gave Mars a 'did you have to put it like that?' look, Mars only gave an innocent smile for a second,then it vanished and he looked at the rest of the group in the room, Sheik remained unaffected by his presence, Ranmaru looked relieved to have Xun back by him, Nightmare was watching him silently, and Mitsuhide was glaring at him.

"Um...why'd I come down here again?" he asked quietly, inching closer to Xun, unsure of Nightmare's current standpoint or how angry with him he'd possibly randomly become...though part of him knew that Nightmare wasn't angry in the least with him..."and why does he look to be plotting my slow and painful and rather untimely demise? What'd I do?"

"I believe it's wounded pride plotting your death right now, Mars." Sheik said, "if I'm not growing dull on my people reading skills."

"No, that looks to be the size of it." Xun said, "I believe there's been a misunderstanding. Mars, are you in love with Date?"

"Wh-what?!" Mars jumped back away from Xun, stariung wide eyed, "what the hell brought that on?!"

"You're not helping yourself, just answer the question." Xun said, he shook his head.

"No. No I can't say that I am."

"There. That should solve the plotting of your death going on here. Or at least it should make it very well known that I don't feel like dealing with imature displays right now, resolve your differances somewhere that isn't near me if you find it necessary to injure someone." then he sat back down on the couch he'd been on earlier. Mars stood silently by the bottom of the stairs for a moment, casting Nightmare a somewhat desperate look, he clearly wanted to be sure nothing had been damaged between himself and Nightmare, but didn't seem to have the nerve to say anything at all. After a moment, he lowered his gaze.

"If-if no one has any other problems with me that they find worth vocalizing, I'm going back upstairs."

Mitsuhide crossed his arms, seeming somewhat unconvinced of Mars' little confession.

* * *

Link threw open the door to Date's room, finding both the boy and his fiancé asleep, though on completely different parts of the bed. Link sighed, determined to beat Mars later. He smiled and walked over, gently picking up Neko. She immediately snuggled into his arms, purring a little. Link slowly exited the room, closing the door behind him and headed downstairs.

* * *

When he got back to the bottom of the stairs, he found Mars turned towards him, blinking a bit, looking like he'd been figuratively kicked in the face...and he also appeared to have been heading back up the stairs.

"Date's sleeping." Link said quietly. Mars nodded a bit, looking back at the group in the room.

"Now I _really_ wanna stay." he muttered bitterly, sarcastically, "I find an unconscious individual better company than some of you people, so I'm out of here. Take it however you want. I really am running dry on reasons to care." then he inched past Link and headed back upstairs, a door could be heard closing a second later.

"Do forgive him." Sheik said, "he gets snippy when he feels cornered...how lashing out helps him any I don't know, but it's how he does things."

"I don't hold it against him." Xun said, "I find it very hard as of late to hold anything against such a damaged child."

"And that's exactly what he is." Link said, "he's still just a child."

* * *

Mars sat by Date's bedside, mulling over things

_so, people hate me now because...because why? Because they think I have a thing going with Date? I don't even know for sure if he meant it that way...but, what if he did? _he looked towards the door, thinking hard on things, on the people downstairs. _Sheik always remains indifferent on most things, so he doesn't hate me, Link loves Neko who cares about me, so he automatically doesn't hate me...Ranmaru's an ass anyway so he doesn't count, I don't give a rat's ass what he thinks...Xun obviously doesn't hate me...but, Mitsuhide, what the hell happened there? I need to get that straightened out...before I meet a very messy end. _then he thought of the last member of the group, and the unease he sensed in him, the doubt that caused to flare up inside the young mage made him second guess whether it was safe to go or stay anywhere. If Nightmare was losing faith in him then what reason did he have to stay with the group of travelers? He was only there because of Nightmare in the first place. _So, if I lose him, if that doubt was real, then what do I have...? _he looked at Date, possibly as an answer to his question, but now all he could find in himself was doubt.

* * *

TBC...

* * *

A/N: oooo, now what? Is Mars giving up on Nightmare and going with Date? Or will he hang in there?

Mars: the suspense is killing me, really it is.

ANR: shut up.

Zykan: so are you gonna pair him up with Date then?

ANR: probably not, but if the story ends out writing itself more so than Anshi-chan and would like it to, then I think I might in the end.

Mars: if Mitsuhide doesn't kill me first.

ANR: you know very well he won't kill you, you have enough friends that are willing to protect you.

Zykan: and you have Nightmare too. He even scares me.

ANR: yup.

Mars: what, he scares you too?

ANR: oh, no, I'm just kind of making sure I stay in the conversation alright that's all.

Mars: right...

ANR: well, anyway, I need to go put more goo on my new tattoo-

Zykan: hey, that rhymes. Goo, new, and tattoo.

ANR: I'm so happy for you that you noticed that.

Zykan: if you're joking that's cruel, but if you're being sarcastic that's even worse.


	11. Chapter 10

The House

Ch. 10

Co-Authored By Azuril Noir Raine (it's been too long since i've decapitated someone!)

Co-Authored By Anshi-chan (i have a kitten!)

* * *

Date's eye opens suddenly, and he seems to spring awake, one hand over his mutilated eye. He was breathing heavily and beads of sweat started appearing on his forehead.

"Shit! What's wrong?" Mars asked, eyes wide and surprised. Date slowly calmed down and flopped back against his pillow.

"It's nothing…just a few bad dreams. Don't worry. I'm fine." He insisted.

"You lie."

"Yes I do but I don't think you're gonna blow me up."

"…I hate you."

"Love you too hon…sure your guardian won't come in and kill me during the night?"

"Uh…maybe?"

"Oh THAT fills me with confidence."

Mars gave a tiny laugh, the first genuine laugh since they'd returned from the mansion. Date took some pride in knowing that.

"He won't kill anyone here. Though I wouldn't mind him making my life a tad less agitating and bumping off Ranmaru, but, out of my overwhelming sense of gratitude and respect for Xun, I will refrain from putting his bitchy boyfriend into a position that may compromise his physical well-being."

"How thoughtfull."

"Isn't it though?" he hesitated but brought up the odd situation downstairs, "it seems Mitsuhide's out for my head, Sheik called it wounded pride, I call it jealousy or envy...what would possess anyone to be jealous of a pitiful little creature such as myself, I don't know, but that's what it seems to be."

"Do you really think of yourself as negatively as you make it sound?"

"Why not? It's the truth, isn't it?" Mars said quietly, obviously well convinced that what he thought of himself was the obvious truth for the issue. "I really can't think of a more pathetic creature than myself...let's look at me for chrissake. I'm a whore on forced retirement, I'm a tool, my purpose in the group I started in was to find the pieces of a demon sword, it took pity to move people to be nice to me, plus the long history of being abused in oh so many ways doesn't help my lack of self esteme any in the least."

"Abused? The group you're with now doesn't...?"

"Oh, no. no, they don't. But before them, aside from when my family was still alive, I don't remember anyone ever giving a shit at all about me...aside from repeat customers but we won't go into detail there. I prefer to attempt blocking those memories out." he fisted a bit of his robe, the poor fastenings on it from his knees down were undone, leaving at least that much of him exposed, the rest of the robe carefully covered him, aside from the sleeves fastened on by loose stitching, hanging down solely by the thread woven through it half-hazardly. One of the benifits to being able to heal any injuries he may have acquired was that no scars or hint of any damage ever having been done to him could be seen, pale skin that should have been littered with scars of varying sizes from wounds of varying severity was flawless instead. He knew to some he was very eye-catching, and he hated it. It was because of that that he'd been hurt in the past, and he wondered if any attraction to him anyone had as of late had anything to do with any traits besides a pretty face that he might have. He quickly wiped at the tears he was cursing the presence of, "hell, what else is there?" he muttered as a continuation to his thought process.

"Eh?" Date cocked his head to the side a bit. Mars shook his head, but spoke up nonetheless.

"Whenever I'm hurt, I can heal it without leaving a scar or mark of any kind, so I look far better than I should...I should be littered with scars, markings, all sorts of memerobilia from past exploits...and I've been told I'm not exactly unattractive, so I'm wondering, any interrest anyone has in me, if I was to scratch up my face, become far less attractive to people, would that attraction to me still be there? Or am I only a pretty face to people?" he closed his eyes, giving up on stopping the tears, "or am I thinking far too highly of myself?"

Date sighed, slowly sitting up. He reached up and removed his eyepatch, revealing the grotesque and mutilated eye socket---the eyelids having been ripped away in the latest encounter with Raphael.

"Look at me. I'm not a pretty face to anyone. I'm like…the less beautiful version of you." He reaches over and gently hugs Mars. "You shouldn't concern yourself with such trivial things. I know it's somewhat difficult to push the past away, and trust me…I know…I was fucked in the eye by a man I had defeated once in my real life…But somehow…even with that, I still don't know how the hell I was able to make it this far. I should have been killed a long time ago. From what I've noticed, Nightmare does care for you. He won't admit it, not in a million years, but look in his eyes. I've noticed it. The little glint of compassion in his eyes." Date suddenly fell silent, clapping his hands over his mouth as if he's said too much. He returns his eyepatch to its rightful place and looks away sadly. "I'm sorry…I overstepped my boundaries…" He said softly.

"No," Mars said, softer than he'd spoken yet, somehow gentler, "No, you...you didn't overstep anything. You..." he just shook his head, then leaned lightly against Date, "you didn't do anything wrong. Don't think you did. Honestly, I think I can see where everyone's coming from when they say we're so similar. I seem to hunt down all of my negative traits, just like you did. There's more than just those bad experiances though...I don't think I'd still be sitting here if you were limited to just those nasty memories. I tend to enjoy the company of people I gain respect for. You're one of the few and proud believe it or not." he paused for a second, taking a deep breath, "and, if what you said, about Nightmare, if that's true, then maybe it is worth my time being a tool...as long as someone cares..." he stopped talking, hiding a yawn behind the back of his hand, "if...if I fall asleep on you, will you at least wake me if you decide to leave me here?"

"Go ahead and sleep...I think you deserve a rest." Date said quietly, Mars made a tiny noise, then closed his eyes, after a moment, Date knew he was sleeping. "Now what do I do with this?" he muttered, not sure how soundly Mars slept, afraid of waking him...and of getting blown up for his transgression.

Being already confined to bed, Date couldn't really move. Eventually, he fell back asleep, one hand resting somewhat protectively on Mars's back. He didn't hear the door open, and he didn't see Mitsuhide watch them for a moment before he stormed back downstairs.

* * *

Neko was asleep on the couch, with her head on Link's lap. The elf in question was gently petting her with one hand, and reading with another.

"Look! He reads!" Sheik teased.

"Ha ha, I love you too."

After a while, Neko woke---when she fell off the couch and hit the floor.

"Ow…hey…good morning everyone. Sheik, make me breakfast."

"No."

"Please? I could be pregnant and you wouldn't know it."

"But you're not."

"How do you know?"

"Because no one has done the 'I got laid' dance."

Xun couldn't help but laugh at the conversation. When met with odd looks, he fessed up.

"We had an 'I got laid' dance a while back. It involved many amounts of pelvic thrusting."

"…You're weird."

"Thanks."

"Hey, what's with...?" Neko started but she just pointed at Mitsuhide when he returned to the group, fuming.

"Mitsuhide went to check on Mars and Date again." Xun said, "and I'm thinking someone else should go make sure their alive still...maybe we should send someone else to check on them from now on."

"Yeah, maybe." Link said, not looking away from his reading.

"You should go, Darling." Neko said, he shook his head.

"Busy."

"Sheik?"

"Busy."

"You're just sitting there!"

"I'm busy watching dust particles."

"Neko, why don't you go." Link said, "Mars won't eat your head off if you catch him at an off moment."

"Yes he will!"

"Would you prefer we send Nightmare?" Sheik whispered carefully, she jumped to her feet.

"Ok, up we go!"

Neko growled and trotted upstairs. Upon peeking into the room, she smiled faintly and closed the door again. She looked at the stairs, and then at the banister before her. Stairs were no fun. So…with a minor running start, she launched herself over the side and dropped the two stories to the floor, landing gracefully on her feet. She returned triumphantly to the group.

"Mars and Date are just sleeping." She said.

"Nice show." Sheik said sarcasticlly, "and they're just sleeping? What is his problem then?"

"I dunno." Neko said with a shrug, jumping over Link and landing on the back of the couch, looking over his shoulder at whatever he was reading. "Jealousy is an icky thing though." she added. "We'll send someone up to check and see if they're up later on...then I think we should get this whole messy romantic ordeal sorted out for good."

"Most defiantly." Nightmare said, looking at the stairs the entire time.

"Speaking of romance...there are spare rooms upstairs...we could be doing the 'I got laid' dance soon." Neko said suggestively, making Link turn bright pink at the thought.

"Save it for later, you two." Sheik said, Link pointed to Neko.

"It was all her how'd I suddenly get blamed?!"

"Never blamed you, just informed you."

"And you call yourself my friend."

"Yes, I do."

"Ok, ok, that's enough." Mitsuhide snapped, "if we're going to sort this out then we're doing it now."

"Ok, we'll send someone who isn't you to get Mars." Neko said.

"Why don't we send people upstairs to get the sorting done with?" Sheik said, "Date's bedridden so he can't come down here and Mars is being oddly clingy so I have a feeling he won't come down here either. Send people that both trust to the best extent, unless we have volunteers instead of voting on some poor individual."

"Well, let's see..." Neko said, "who does Date trust the most? We know Mars trusts nightmare the most, though I don't know about anyone else..."

"He trusts you." Link pointed out.

"Ok, so Neko and Nightmare will be Mars's reps, and who else? We need people for Date...let's just make it two for him as well." Sheik said, Xun looked thoughtfull,

"well, I think it should be at least one person Mars trusts as well. I have a feeling he won't say anything around people he doesn't trust, no matter how many people he does trust are around him. Someone he wants off his back should go, he'll want to, well, get said person off his case."

"I nominate Xun and Mitsuhide." Neko said, "Xun's cute and I like him and Mars is cool with him too and Mtsuhide is being an ass to Mars so Mars will want him gone, thus making him give honest answers faster."

"Ok, bye, guys." Sheik said.

"Funny." Nightmare said, following Neko and Xun upstairs, Mitsuhide grudgingly following.

* * *

"Do you want to wake them or should I?" Neko asked. Xun sighed and pushed past her walking into the room and gently shook Date's shoulders. The boy purred a little and slowly opened his eye.

"Good morning." Xun said softly, sitting on the edge of the bed. Neko was the next in, gently waking Mars up and not getting blown up. Brining up the rear was Mitsuhide and Nightmare. Date yawned and slowly sat up, setting a few pillows at his back to keep him from falling over.

"You lying little bastard." Mitsuhide hissed, his sword suddenly drawn and pressed against Date's throat, waking him instantly.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Neko growled, flicking her wrists. The blades of her cat claws slid from their little sheaths.

"What the fuck?!" Mars yelped falling back away from the bed, then getting to his feet quickly. "Neko, what the fuck's going on?!"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Mitsuhide, what the hell?! Don't make me use these, because I won't hesitate to!"

"Mitsuhide, what's wrong with you?! Stop it!" Xun said.

Date tensed, looking at the blade with a certain amount of unease. He looked up the blade to the angered eyes of Mitsuhide. "I thought you'd at least have the decency to confront me and tell me that you felt nothing for me." Mitsuhide growled.

"I thought I would have too…but I didn't. Live with it." Mitsuhide growled, pressing the blade against Date's throat, watching as blood slid down the metal. Neko had to intervene, catching the blade in her claws and snapping the sword into tiny pieces. Date slowly reached up to touch his wound, wincing and looking at the blood on his hands as if it was new to him.

"Date!" Mars quickly moved back to the young warrior's side, healing the wound, "there." then he glared at Mitsuhide, "obviously you have a thing for him, and being turned down is defiantly no excuse to try to kill him, no wonder you're single. There's no point in getting mad at him because he doesn't care about you the way you want him to. And, obviously, now you have a thing against me now, I honestly don't care about your opinion of me by the way. If you pull one more stunt that invloves injuring him in some way, then you can deal with me...and I am more dangerous than I look." then he stood up, and headed for the door, "I need a time out before I blow someone's head up."

"Go. Be free. Blow something up." Date said somewhat wearily. Xun sighed and trotted after him, ready to take whatever explosions that may come his way.

"Hey, Mars, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"How do you really feel, about Date?"

Mars stopped walking, blinking a bit.

"Uh..."

"You don't know?"

"I...thought I did. But I don't think I really know now."

"What about Nightmare?" Xun asked, following Mars when he started walking again. He stopped when they were outside by the tree Mars had been perched in when he first met Date. Mars sat down under the tree, pulling his knees up to his chest, mindful of his robe's position, then he hid his face from view against his knees. "Mars?"

"I don't know. I really don't. I-I know how I feel about Nightmare, I know that all too well. But now I dunno. Date's...gone through so much, and all of it was for me, or so he says...Nightmare took me off the streets, he's kept me safe, and I'd do anything to keep that. But, Date...I just...I don't know. I don't even know if he's doing and saying all of this because of a strong friendship or because he's in love with me. I guess it depends on that. It depends on what it is he honestly feels for me. Though that could just lead to more complications and more stress in the end, but I'm leaving it as it depends on him."

"It depends on Date? He decides this entire thing for you?"

"If that's the way you wanna put it, then yeah I guess he does." Xun didn't have anything to say to that.

* * *

"Date," Neko said, Nightmare and Mitsuhide had cleared out, and it was now only Neko and Date, "can I ask you a question?"

"I don't know, can you?"

"Funny. Alright then, I say I can."

"Fine then. What?"

"It's about Mars..."

"Uh-oh."

"Date, how do you really feel about Mars?" Neko asked. Date smiled sadly, looking away and out the window. He reached up and touched the spot on his neck where he had been cut.

"Do you want my honest opinion or just something to make you feel better?"

"I want the truth." Date let his head drop, pulling his uninjured leg up to his chest.

"Then I guess you could say that I'm in love. Mars is the first person who I feel like I can actually talk to, who I can open up to. I've been more honest with him than I was when Lu Xun and I were going out…I don't know…I don't think I'll ever be able to tell him though. He's got Nightmare to protect him, and I know he doesn't want to stay here…but while he is here I want protect him, do something for him, LIVE for him. I wanted to protect him, and possibly love him from the moment I saw him. That's why I continued to take his place when Raphael was continuing to torment us. I don't want anything terrible to happen to him. Never again. So I fought, I struggled, I bled, I broke and I gave in because I found myself in love with Mars…" Date's voice trailed off, hiding his face in his hands as if he was ashamed of suddenly spilling what he felt. Neko smiled and reached over, petting his head. "I just…I don't think I'll be able to tell him…"

_I wonder..._ Neko mused to herself, _what would happen if we left him here for a bit longer? Who would he kill first and who would he fall for for real? I'm tempted to find out...but something tells me I shouldn't.

* * *

_

"Let's go back inside. Your guardian is probably worried about you." Xun said, holding out a hand to Mars, who stared at it for a second, then grabbed it and allowed Xun to help him to his feet. "You're causing quite the stir here. I must commend you for that much. Let's go inside."

"If I get skewered, you're the first one my ghost's coming after."

"Of course."

* * *

"I think I heard a door close downstairs." Neko said, looking towards the door, "I'll go check it out. Take it easy ok?" then she headed downstairs, finding Xun and Mars joining the group still seated downstairs. "Hey, strangers, how's the dust collection going?"

"Funny." Link said, "how'd it go up there? Obviously without casualties."

"I don't really wanna talk about it." Mars said before heading for the stairs.

"U-Um, Mars, can I, uh, talk to you for a minute? In private?" Neko said quickly, he gave her an odd look, "ok, no, I am not going to profess my undying love for you like everyone else around here seems to be, I just need to converse a bit."

"You scare me." Mars said following her out into the kitchen. "Ok, what?"

"Um, well, this is gonna sound kinda nosy of me, I know...but..."

"What?"

"How do you feel about Date?"

"Whoa, deja vu!" Mars said, "I don't really know. Like I told Xun outside, I guess it depends on him. I know how I feel about Nightmare, but Date's kind of worming his way into my brain too now...and the worst part is that the whole thing's just getting me so flipping wound up that I feel more at ease just hiding from it all...by Date...the whole thing's got my brain tied in a knot."

"Mars..." Neko hesitated, debating on whether telling him Date's standpoint or not was a good idea, then she nearly fainted at his next confession.

"In all honesty, I think I might just be falling for him...but...I..."

"Mars, Date, he, well, he..." she fumbled with her sentence, trying to weigh the different outcomes. Nightmare was still on Mars's mind, but Date was worming his way in. Mars was becoming more and more lost in the entire thing, and she was afraid he'd snap. "Maybe we should leave before this whole thing goes too far. Or someplace you don't want it to."

"No, I-I don't want to leave...at least, not until I know he's ok for sure...and not until I can figure this whole thing out a bit more..."

"Mars, you might end out making a mistake that you can't take back. Then what? You're still a kid, you've got a whole lifetime ahead of you to live. Don't fuck it up now just because you're confused. Come on, let's go tell them we're leaving."

"No. No, I want to stay. I don't know why. I just..."

"Mars-" she stopped when he left the room, heading for the stairs. "Shit!"

"Just leave it alone, ok?!" then a door slammed closed.

"Neko-"

"Don't ask." she said, cutting her fiancé off quickly. "It's not safe to tread on ice that thin, hun."

* * *

Date looked up when he heard the door to his room slam closed, a few seconds later, he had a very upset Mars latching onto him and bursting into tears.

"Mars, what's-what the-damn." he tried his hand at comforting the mage, "what's wrong? What happened?" after a minute or so of nothing but incoherant babbling, he was about to tell him to forget it, but nearly choked on his own tongue when Mars finally pulled himself together.

"Date, I-I think I...I think I might...be falling for you."

* * *

TBC...

* * *

A/N: uh-oh. Now what?

Mars: I feel so used.

ANR: oh, get over it.

Zykan: hey, I'm surprised you haven't fucked anyone yet...or are you more of the 'be fucked' kind of person?

Mars: shut up. I'm not one for any kind of fucking.

Zykan: that'll change with her at the helm. (Points to ANR) she has a thing for sex.

Mars: though she's never been laid before. How odd.

Zykan: no, it isn't.

ANR: hey! Watch it! I'm eighteen, it's perfectly logical for me to still be a virgin!

Zykan/Mars: no, it isn't.

Mars: most eighteen year old chicks today have a mile long list of times they've been fucked. You're a virgin and it's sad.

ANR: that's it! Next chapter's strictly an orgy!

Mars: o-o meep!

Zykan: haha!

ANR: I'm adding you too!

Zykan: o-o meep!

Bobby: haha!

Zykan/Mars: shut up!

ANR: next chapter coming up soon.


	12. Chapter 11

The House

Ch. 11

Co-Authored By Azuril Noir Raine (damn you and your logical thinking!)

Co-Authored By Anshi-chan (i got attacked by a pit bull)

* * *

Date's eye widened, though the sentence couldn't have made him any happier. He tightened his hold on Mars, tears forming in his eye.

"I've already fallen, Mars. Fallen as far as I can go. The moment I saw you. And look where it's gotten me. I'm sitting, bedridden, and holding onto you. Mars, I don't want anything bad to happen to you, ever again. I want to protect you, Mars. I want to care for you, and love you, and be with you…" Date pauses, running his fingers through the mage's long red hair. "Giving up a second time…I didn't want that bastard to touch you, ever again. I'd give my life and anything else for you……I love you Mars."

* * *

"I honestly don't know what to make of this whole thing." Neko said, "it's like being here is both making him happy and taking him farther away from us."

"And I think leaving is a bad idea." Sheik said, "he'd never forgive us."

"And we can't leave without him." Link added, "we need him to find the Soul Edge. And it just wouldn't be the same without him."

"I don't know what to say or do in this situation," Nightmare said, "I've never dealt with anything like this before. He's free to do what he wants, but you're right, we need him to continue on with our little journey."

"You're just worried about the Soul Edge?" Neko asked, confused, "I thought you actually cared about him."

"I think we should move away from that area and back to Mars's situation." Sheik said quickly, "we need him to come with us, apparently he's needed just as badly here, and he's a psychologically damaged and confused trainwreck of a sixteen year old boy. What do we do with that kind of thing?"

"Well, I confirmed it a bit ago," Neko said, "Date's totally lost in Mars, like I don't think he'll be able to get over him ever. And I think Mars is starting to fall for Date too. Actually, I'm more than very positive he is." she closed her eyes, trying to calm the urge she had to just run away from the entire thing, "we need to get him out of here." she continued, "before he does something he'll regret, or lets something happen that he might regret." Xun gave a nod in agreement.

"He's torn between two people." he said, "I asked him earlier. He has someone he's been in love with, and now I believe Date's kindness, coupled with the events earlier, is making him second-guess himself, making him think that the situation he's putting himself in is how it should be."

"So because Date's in love with him, Mars thinks he's obligated to care back, in a way?" Link said, making sure he'd understood properly.

"Yes. He doesn't know it, but the lack of knowing what to do is making all of the choices for him, all of the wrong choices apparently. We need to end this before it truly begins."

"Amen. But how?" Neko said, "someone should go talk to them." she looked at Nightmare, "Nightmare, you go. He listens to you."

"I don't think he will this time." Nightmare said, "I'm loath to admit that this may be one of those problems he has to work through on his own. I only hope he doesn't hurt himself too much along the way."

"I don't like that train of thought." Neko said, "we need to figure out a plan here, not just wait for him to fall. I can't wait for that part, I need to do something now."

"But what?" Link pointed out, "we haven't even left square one yet on this whole thing. How do we figure out something like this?"

"I don't know."

"Well," Sheik said, "I don't mean this to sound the way it probably will, it's a serious statement, at least Date's still bedridden and can't do much moving around."

"Your odd yet valid statement both reasures me a bit and disconserts me a lot." Neko said, "and with everything Mars has been through, I highly doubt he's in any real mental state of any kind solid enough to think of sex." a long pause, then, "right?"

Neko sighed.

"I don't think Date fell in love for Mars just so he can have sex with him. I know. I've heard the two sides. It's not desire." She took a moment to crawl onto Link's shoulders. "It's love. Plain and simple." She finished, sighing and climbing back off her fiancé's shoulders.

"Are you feeling okay?" Link asked, watching her pace and fidget nervously.

"No! I'm not okay! I don't know what to do and how to act or how to feel or anything like that! I'm frustrated and confused and nervous and I don't know what I'm supposed to do!"

By this time, everyone had taken several steps away from her. Neko took several deep breaths and turned to the window. She unlocked it and leaned over the sil, not really caring for once as it started raining. "I think I need to take a walk or something."

"Neko," Sheik said, "all of us are confused and frustrated, I'm sure Mars is too. I know I am anyway. But running away using the lame excuse of I need to take a walk isn't going to help him, you, or anyone. Now close the window and get back over here." when she looked like she was about to jump anyway, he spoke up again, "didn't you promise him that you would be the equivilant of a sister to him? Look after him? Protect him? Not run away from him when you know he's in a confusing place? And doesn't he trust you to keep your word? You can go if you want, I won't stop you, I can't speak for the rest of the group, but I won't stop you. I just think you should live up to the position you promised him you'd fill. That's all."

* * *

_where did this come from so damn suddenly?_ Mars thought, _why? Why does this feel so right...but, yet, so very, very wrong? I thought I...Nightmare...I need to find the Soul Edge. He can't leave here without me...but, now what do I do?_ he closed his eyes lightly, tired from crying, _"Maybe we should leave before this whole thing goes too far. Or someplace you don't want it to." I think I'm already in that place._ he latched onto Date, just taking sanctuary in his presence, _I never wanted to stay here. I wanted to leave. I hated this place. Besides that mansion, this is the last place I wanted to be...and of course falling in love with one of the locals was defiantly not on my list of things to do-_ he paused his mental rant for a second, thinking back on what he'd just thought, _did I just say love?

* * *

_

Neko growled to herself and positioned herself on the windowsill.

"I'm going for a walk. I need to clear my head, and can't quite do it here. I don't care if it's raining. I need to get out of here for a while." She said.

"Neko, wait---"

"Not this time, I need to be alone." Neko didn't wait for a response before she leapt into the dark and vanished into the rain.

"Goddamnit. I'm going after her." Sheik started. Link reached his arm out and held his friend back.

"Let her go. She'll be back." He says with a certain air of confidence.

* * *

_Stupid! Goddamnit Date! You know he doesn't want to be here. Can't you just keep your own mouth shut for once! Maybe you shouldn't have told that freaky cat-chick…and you shouldn't have told Mars any of this!_ He scolded himself, biting his lower lip in an attempt to keep his thoughts to himself. _You should have stopped it. You should have kept it to yourself. It's better to suffer in silence right?_ As he mentally beat himself, he didn't notice his vision going in and out, or his cheeks going red. In mere minutes, his grip loosened considerably and he slumped against Mars, unconscious and feverish.

"Date? Date! Shit! Wake up! Date!" Mars paused his panic attack, examining the older boy, "shit again. He's sick...now what?" he looked towards the door, "I can't...go down there...I don't think I can..." _I can't see him now...I-I just can't deal with that..._ "But..." he looked at Date, then back at the door, _This could be a good time to escape too, I could go with them...but, it would never be the same...and I've lost him, I know I have. So, maybe I will be staying here for a while...at least until I can...get over Nightmare...right?_ while his mental rambling was going on, he was absently leaving the room and heading for the stairs. When he woke from his mental musings, he found himself at the bottom of the stairs, on his ass. "Wh-what happened?" he asked, looking around, dazed.

"You fell down the stairs." Xun said from his place kneeling next to Mars, "are you alright?"

"Um, when did I fall down?"

"Not but ten seconds or so ago." Link said, "you doing ok? You don't look too good."

"No, I'm not ok. In fact, I couldn't be worse I think." Mars said, sans thinking, when he realized what he'd said, he attempted saving himself, "Date's sick." he said quickly, "and I can't try curing him since I don't know for sure what's wrong."

"You can cure illnesses?" Ranmaru said, sounding somewhat impressed.

"Mars is the only cure for the common cold." Sheik said, then he looked at Mars, "two things, one, why don't you sit this one out, we'll see to Date. I think you need to get your head back together...for multiple reasons."

"If I wasn't so completely lost right now, I'd make you go boom, but I need a time out so I won't."

"You just had a time out about half an hour ago." Xun said,

"no, that was an interrogation of a mild sort. Now I need an actual time out. Contradict me, I dare you."

"Fine. Sheik, will you come with me to check on Date?" Xun said standing up, Sheik gave a nod and followed him upstairs. Mars just stayed where he was, eyes on the floor.

"I'm sorry." he said quietly, "I mean it. I am."

"Eh? What do you mean?" Link asked, Mars looked up for a second.

"I mean I didn't mean to cause all this trouble. It's just..." he lowered his gaze again, "it's just i'm...I'm really confused. I know who I've been in love with, I know I'm still in love with that same person. But now I think I'm starting to love Date too and I don't know what to do...I want to leave, I want to get as far away from all this as I can. But I don't want to leave Date, not after all he's done, all he's been through...and all of it was for me."

"Mars, I'm not judging you. I'm not sure how many people are, but I'm not." Link said carefully, "I know you're frustrated, upset, confused, and I don't know what to do or say to help you at all."

"Where's Neko?" Mars asked, looking around, "where'd she go?"

"For a walk." Link said pointing to the open window, "to cool her head."

"She'll be gone a while then." Mars muttered, "so what do I do?"

"What?"

"What am I supposed to do? How do I pick? Who do I pick?"

"Who do you want to be with? That's who you pick." Link said, Mars shook his head,

"no, that can't work. I want to be with both of them, but I can't have that. I can't keep both happy, I can't be in two places at once. I know what one wants from me. I know I can give what's needed there...but the other, I don't know. How do I choose?"

"I can't tell you that." Link said, "I don't know the answer."

"A lot of help you are." Mars said, getting to his feet and heading for the door.

"Mars, where are you going?" Nightmare said quickly, Mars stopped walking.

"Just outside. I'm not going far. I won't even leave the yard. I-I promise." then he left.

Mars stopped walking when he was by the tree out in the front of the house, looking up at the sky for a second, then sitting down and curling up into a ball to, yet again, cry himself out.

"Don't cry, Mars. It isn't something that looks good on you." Neko said, swinging down from the branch so that she was still somewhat in the tree. She looked like she had been crying for quite a while as well, though it was unclear how much of it was tears and how much was just being out in the rain. "I can't hope to decide for you, but coming from someone who's made her fair share of romantic let-downs, I want you to choose someone who'll make you happy. Date may have given a helluva lot for you, but think about it. You've know him for what….a few hours? You know almost as much about him as Link knows about my past---which isn't very much."

"Let's remember though," Mars said, "that you and Link are getting married dispite his cluelessness."

"Hm, that's a relatively good point."

"So what was the point you were trying to make again?"

"I was trying to make you see that even though Date loves you, you have no idea if it's just a fleeting infatuation or not."

"And if it's not? Then what?"

"Well, I guess that's up to you."

"Why can't I cry again?"

"Because I say so."

"Now give me a valid reason."

"Funny."

"I try."

"I know."

"Why didn't you take a walk? You normally don't stick around when you announce that you're going out for a bit."

"You trying to get rid of me?"

"No. Just curious."

"I didn't want to go too far, just incase."

"Just incase what exactly?"

"Just incase I was really needed."

"How touching."

"Isn't it though?"

"It's wet out."

"You're avoiding the topic."

"And kind of cold."

"You're avoiding the topic."

"Can we go inside now?"

"Sure. And you're still avoiding the topic."

"So?"

"Well, that was a short walk." Link said when Neko and Mars reentered the house, "and an even shorter time out."

"Shut up." Mars said, either back to his old self or just acting very well. "I feel like a drenched Afghan hound."

"You look like a drowned rat."

"Screw you."

"Come on, let's go dry off before you get sick or something." Neko said, leading Mars towards the stairs, where towels await in the upstairs bathroom.

"You're getting water everywhere." Ranmaru said, Mars promptly took advantage of the fact that Xun wasn't around and sprayed Ranmaru with water.

"Ha." he said before heading upstairs after Neko.

* * *

"Oi, boys!" Neko said as she and Mars entered the room Xun and Sheik were in, a towel on her head, another wrapped around her, clothes left hanging in the bathroom to dry, Mars in a similar wardrobe.

"I missed something prominant, didn't I?" Sheik teased, Neko play-hit him.

"We didn't do anything aside from stay out in the rain talking long enough to drench our clothes through to the skin they covered."

"I hate it when my hair gets wet like this, it's impossible to deal with!" Mars whined patheticly, when wet, his hair touched the floor.

"You look kind of like a teenage Cousin It." Neko joked, he growled a bit, "I'm kidding, here, lemme help you dry it."

"If that can be done." Sheik said, grinning at the galre he was receiving, then Neko tightened the towel around her and took the one she had on her head off it, using it to attempt the long and strenuous process of drying Mars's hair. Mars looked at Date.

"Is he alright?"

"Yes. Fine, just a bit feverish. We gave him something for it and now really all we can do is wait for it to die down." Xun said, leaving the room, Sheik following a second later. Neko paused her drying to give Mars a long glance, then she started drying again, talking as she did so.

"Remember, think about this. He could be over you in a week, maybe less. You saw how he acted when faced with Mitsuhide earlier. 'Well I didn't, live with it'. Remember?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I remember. But, he-he said..."

"I know what he claims, he told me too. Before he told you."

"He said he was in love with you?!"

"No, moron! He said he was in love with you!"

"That's far less disconcerting."

"Funny. And what's so disconcerting about someone being in love with you?"

"My self-confidence and self-esteme tell me that's impossible. And, until I actually think higher of myself than I do dirt, I'm sticking to that theory. That there's nothing worth loving here."

"You're an idiot."

"It's been said before. And I've been called far worse."

"I know." she said, "I've called you far worse." he gave her a flat look over his shoulder.

"I know."

* * *

"Nice outfit." Link said when Neko came downstairs in her towel, a new one on her head.

"Want me to model it for you in private?" she said cutely, Nightmare rolled his eyes then gave her a light smack on the head. "Ow! Hey!"

"That didn't hurt and you know it."

"Ok, so maybe it didn't."

"Save sex for later."

"It's later."

"Neko, don't make me repeat myself."

"Fine."

"You're amazing." Ranmaru said, "you actually have the ability to control these people."

"You find it amazing, I find it tiresome. Now what did you say to him?"

"I just told him that this could very well be a temporary infatuation and he could be cast aside very easily."

"So you lied?"

"Well..."

"Just say yes, ok?"

"Fine I guess I did."

"Why? That won't help him any. It'll probably only make things worse in the end."

"Because I want him to be happy. And he's happy around us." Neko said earnestly. "I know he's found some kindred spirits here, and I think that's what's keeping him chained here. He sees more of himself in these guys, more of the bad qualities he thought would make him a hated creature."

"So he sees his issues in these guys and that somehow makes him happy?" Sheik said, "how does that work?"

"No, dumbass! I mean since he sees his little quirks in other people that just happen to be living happy lives with friends and shit like that, he has it in his head now that these guys are probably the only ones that really get him."

"Well, then we need to get him out of that mind set and fast." Link said, "we need to leave. No offense or anything to anyone here, but we need to get back on the road."

"No offense taken, I think." Xun said as he rejoined the group.

"Where were you?" Neko saked,

"leaving some things with Mars. He's still in by Date. I for one think it a good idea to have someone up there keeping an eye on him."

"So someone should go keep an eye on him?" Neko said, Xun rolled his eyes.

"No, I meant I'm glad there's someone up there to make sure Date's ok." he looked at Ranmaru, raising an eyebrow, "what happened here?"

"Wet t-shirt contest. You missed it." Neko said with a grin.

"No, he's getting the same show as everyone else." Ranmaru said sourly.

"Really? Cool."

"Shut up, catwoman."

"Say that to my face, femmie!"

"Neko, put your claws away, you can't fight naked!"

"Um, Link..."

"Oh, shut up!"

* * *

Date opened his eye slowly, he felt somewhat sick, and very tired. When his vision focused properly, he noted someone sitting on the bed next to him. A few more seconds of coming to properly and he realized it was Mars.

"You're awake! Thank god, I was starting to really worry." Mars said, Date blinked a bit. "What's wrong?"

"Um...your clothes...where...uh, um..."

"I was outside, it's raining rather heavily, and my clothes suffered just as heavily, so I lack them as of right now. Why the paranoia? If it bugs you that much I can go get someone else to-"

"No. No, that's not it. It's just..." _completely not fair of you to do this to me!_ "a bit of a shock to see someone in nothing but a towel sitting next to you right away when you wake up."

"Oh, if that's all."

Date moans and attempts to sit up, only to fail and flop back onto the pillow. He weakly holds one hand up to his head, as if checking himself for fever. When his hand drops to his side, he groans again and pulls the blankets over him tightly. He shivered a little and his eyelid felt heavy.

"No Mars…it's not quite all. I mean…I can guess how difficult of a position you're in, and…" _I want you to stay here with me_ "…I want you to be happy. If it's not with me, I'll understand…" Date's eye dims, his vision continuing to get hazy. He starts coughing, rather violently. When the fit subsides, he tries to hide the blood on his lips and hands.

* * *

Xun sighed and flopped onto the couch.

"Now what? I mean, I've been in this place longer than anyone. I've seen people come and go, fixed or dead. I've seen it all…" he motions over to Link, "I've seen someone who looked exactly like you, but he had red eyes and wore all black. I mean, I've seen everything. And I do blame myself for this situation. I slammed the door on Date when he needed me the most. And this is the first time since then that he's opened up to anyone. I don't know if it's infatuation or he's really in love, but I do know how he'll react when and if Mars leaves."

"How?"

"He'll lie on his bed for hours, neither awake nor asleep. He'll stare out his window and barely breathe. He won't eat and he won't respond to anything aside punching him---ask Ranmaru, he knows. He won't resist at all and I know he's gotten himself almost raped four or five times. It's the time he's most vulnerable, but I try to keep an eye on him."

"So you're saying what exactly?" Neko asked, "that if we leave here he'll be temporarily vegitized?"

"How did he come out of it last time?" Sheik asked, Xun sighed,

"actually, he didn't start acting completely and fully like his old self until Mars showed up. He recovered slowly, but he did recover. I'm worrying, also, about this new side of him I'm seeing. One that's more vulnerable and at the same time, more bent on living. It's like the old Date's back and at the same time a newer and more improved version's there as well."

"More bent on living?" Neko sais, remembering something Date had said earlier, _"…but while he is here I want protect him, do something for him, LIVE for him."_

"Did he say something to you? What's wrong?" Xun asked, Neko shook her head a bit.

"I'm starting to think that this might just not be an infatuation. There are things that Date said that are adding up to too many other things."

"I think if it was an infatuation, or some other petty form of attraction, then he'd have taken what he wanted by now." Sheik said, "though I would like to think higher of him than that."

"I really have no clue what to do here." Neko said miserably, "and I hate that realization."

* * *

"Hold still, relax, you'll just wear yourself down more." Mars said quickly, "just feverish my ass. There's something wrong here, I-I'm sorry I don't know how to help you. I should know, I should be able to do something, but I..."

"It's ok." Date said, tangling his fingers in Mars's hair gently, "it's alrigh."

Mars shook his head,

"no, it's not. It's not fair...that you're in pain because of me. It's not right." he shook his head a bit as he spoke, "I'm sorry that you got hurt, that you suffered, that I'm the reason for it all. I'm sorry."

"Mars," Date said, once he had the mage's attention he continued, "it's ok. This was my choice. It's not your doing."

Mars hesitated, but spoke up again,

"you said...you wanted me to be happy...even if it's not here, with you. It seems like everyone's pushing me to leave. Like I'm...like I'm not wanted, or like I've worn out my welcome. If you love me so much then why are you pushing me to leave?"

"I'm not pushing you to leave, or pushing you to stay." Date said, "I'm hoping you'll make a choice based on what you want. Not what I want, not what everyone else wants, but based on what you really, really want. You love Nightmare, I know that, and he may not ever admit it, but he does care about you too. If you look hard enough, you can see it there. I don't want you to stay because I want you to, or leave because they want you to. I want you to stay or leave because you want to. I'm sure that's what they want too, for you to be happy. No one can make that choice for you. Not me, not Nightmare, not Xun or anyone. You know what makes you happy, it's your choice."

"It sort of seems like you're the only one that thinks that. That I can make my own choices, that is." he closed his eyes and leaned into Date's touch when he rested a hand on Mars's cheek. "It's hard though...I'm happy here, and I'm happy with them, traveling. I didn't want to stay here, I wanted to go back to them, but now I don't know. I didn't think I'd belong here, didn't really think I wanted to belong here. Then I found out how well I fit in here and it's hard now, hard to pick between the two groups that I seem to fit in with. Plus part of me's worried about Mitsuhide killing you in your sleep."

"He won't." Date said with a laugh, "Xun won't let him at least."

"What do you want?" Mars asked suddenly, "you're one of the many people asking me to choose what I want, but no one's telling me what they want. What do you want?"

"Truthfully, or something to make you feel better."

"No bullshit, please."

"Ever the blunt one, aren't you?"

"Always."

"What do I want?"

"Yes. What you want sans bullshit."

"What I want..." Date seemed to be thinking on it, then he gave Mars's hair, which his fingers were still tangled in, a small tug, Mars taking the hint and leaning down closer to him, another tug, a bit closer, another tug, once he could feel Mars's breath on his face, Date answered, "personally, I want you to kiss me."

* * *

"So you think we should stay a while until he has his head on straight?" Neko asked, looking at Nightmare, who nodded.

"Which one of them?" Link pointed out.

"I meant Mars but I guess both of them." Nightmare said simply, "I've known Mars the longest here, and he needs to fall sometimes before he knows what it is he's doing. It sounds cold, I know, but he won't have it any other way but the way he wants it, and you all know it."

"He does like having things his way, doesn't he?" Sheik commented. "Ok, we'll let him take it on his own terms then. It only seems fair to everyone we've somehow damaged along the way that this ends soon though."

"We'll give him a few days then, or however long the Weaver will allow us." Nightmare said.

"Right." Neko said with a nod.

* * *

"Personally, I want you to kiss me." Date said quietly. There was a second of hesitation, then Mars kissed him.

* * *

TBC...

* * *

A/N: oooooo, is Mars giving up completely on Nightmare? Or is this just confused teenage hormones talking? Wait and see.

Mars: hormones, dammit! And no orgy.

ANR: yeah, Anshi-chan didn't know about my orgy threat so we ended out not doing it.

Zykan: see? She still hasn't done it.

ANR: (beats him with her pool cue)

Zykan: ow.

Mars: o-o

ANR: next chapter, coming up soon!


	13. Chapter 12

The House

Ch. 12

Co-Authored By Azuril Noir Raine (i stopped touching it because he wouldn't cooporate.)

Co-Authored By Anshi-chan (yeah, hear that sound? that's the sound of you _breaking my mind_.)

* * *

Not even two or three seconds passed before Date's eye widened and he pushed Mars away, clutching his chest. He started coughing again, though it seemed like it was more violent. He held his hand over his mouth again, blood squicking through his fingers. When the fit subsided, he fell back onto the bed like a rag doll. His breathing was labored and raspy, and his face was flushed with fever, save for the blood on either side of his mouth.

"Sorry about that…didn't think you wanted me coughing into your mouth." He said, a faint smile on his face, though it was clear that he was in pain. "You asked what I wanted, Mars…and I want you to be here with me, but I'm gonna say it flat out---I'm terrified of that same idea. I don't want to risk hurting you, like I did with Mitsuhide. Since Xun…I've been just…scared shitless of a relationship..." Date winced, his arm pressing against some of his wounds. "Don't worry…I'm fine. Really. Just a few stitches popped out…" He insists, though it's clear that his problems are far more severe than that. He waves Mars off a bit, as if he wants to be alone. "Can you go tell Xun I need some stitches fixed? He's always been better at that than I." Date says softly, his smile fading a little.

* * *

Xun crossed his arms and sighed deeply. When met with puzzled looks, he fessed up.

"Okay, okay, I'll talk. There's another reason I'm worried. After I broke him…he's kinda had this…sorta phobia of relationships, and the couple times he's been raped didn't help. He got into the mindset of thinking that every relationship he'll be in will end up hurting him, either physically or emotionally, and we had an incident several months ago with just that happening…but that's another story. So…either he's repressing all these feelings, or he's gotten over it all, and I'm betting the former rather than the latter."

* * *

"If you were so afraid of this, then why did you even start it?" Mars asked, he didn't hold Date's fear against him, nor did he hate Date for it. He sighed heavily, "I'll go get Xun. And I suppose you'd like me to stay downstairs after that then?"

Date's smile fades completely and he sighs, though it's clear that every movement is painful. "I'm sorry. I just..I don't know. I really want to be with you, Mars." His voice trails off as he starts coughing again, curling up on his uninjured side. When the fit subsides, his hands and mouth are bright red with blood.

Mars just stared for a second, not sure what to do, then he ran out of the room.

"Xun, Xun!" he stopped at the top of the stairs, looking down at the group below, "Date needs help!"

Xun headed for the stairs quickly,

"What's wrong with him?" he asked upon joining Mars.

"He's coughing up blood, and he needs some things restiched."

"You sound like he hurt you somehow." Xun said, Mars following him back over by the room Date was in, they stopped outside it to continue talking..

"No, not hurt, just...I'm just...confused, that's all. He says he wants me, and then pushes me away. I don't understand, that's all it is."

"I see."

"Should I go?"

"What?"

"Do you think it would be easier for me and for him if I left with Nightmar and Neko? Am I just causing more trouble than I should staying here with him?"

"That's up to you. Do you want to stay?"

"Yes. But I want to leave too. I just know that things will never be the same for me no matter where I stay. I think I ruined it for myself with both groups. I honestly just want to disappear if it'll help anyone at all. Would it? Would it make anything better if I just disappeared?"

"I couldn't tell you. I really don't know."

"Date loves me, I know that much, I can tell that much, but he has a phobia of some kind keeping him from trusting me completely. It's making it seem more like a game. And I wish he'd stop toying with me. It's taken a lot for me come this far, I don't know how much more I can take."

"Mars..." Xun stopped when Mars turned away and headed down the hall.

"I'm going to see if my clothes are dry."

Xun sighed sadly and walked into Date's room, finding the one-eyed dragon curled up on the floor, having taken a bit of a tumble.

"What the hell is your problem?" Xun asked, kneeling next to him and propping him up against the bed. He tore open the front of Date's robe and checked over the stitches.

"I fucked up…that's my problem…I just fucked up again…"

* * *

Neko growled and stretched out on the couch, kicking Sheik off of it in the process.

"You know what? Let's just take Mars and go. Fuck Date and his phobia. He'll recover." She grumbled, her ears drooped in frustration.

"You can't mean that."

"Part of me does and part of me doesn't." She countered, burying her head in her arms.

* * *

"He's as broken as you are, Date." Xun said absently, "he's incapable of doing anything to purposely hurt anyone. And I know you know that."

"..."

"If you want to be with him, let him in, don't rip him up more."

"Don't you think I know that?"

"Then start acting like you care as much as you say you do. You'll just end out losing him if you don't."

* * *

"You know just dragging Mars out of here won't work. He's a danger to himself and others more so when he's depressed, and just pulling him out of here sans thinking might not be the best of ideas." Sheik said, now simply leaning against the couch he'd been booted off of. "I think the best bet we have is to simply wait it out."

"Why? Why are you all so content with him just eating himself away until there's nothing left to save?" Neko asked, sitting up, "where the hell do you guys get off thinking like that? He's gonna break, I know it. I don't want that for him. I don't want him hurting any more than he already is."

"You have a point there." Link said, "Date's confusing him, and I'm pretty sure he's ready to just crawl into a corner and hide. If he wants to stay, we can't force him to leave, it wouldn't be right."

"True." Neko admited. Mars suddenly came down the stairs, handing Neko her clothes. "Eh?"

"They're dry now." he explained, back in his own clothes.

"Oh. Ok." Neko said, taking her clothes and heading upstairs to find an empty room to change in. Mars sat down on the couch, staying silent until Xun reappeared.

"Mars, Date wants to talk to you." he said, Mars gave a tiny nod, then headed for the stairs.

* * *

"How are you doing?" Mars asked upon entering the room Date was in, "any better?"

"Yeah. Can you close the door."

"Huh?"

"Close the door."

Mars hesitated, then closed the door behind him as he walked the rest of the way into the room.

"Xun said you wanted to talk to me."

"Yeah." Date said, "I do." Mars sat down on the bed next to Date, watching him quietly, waiting for him to speak.

* * *

Neko trotted down the stairs, taking a flying leap and landing on Link's lap.

"Where's Mars?"

"Date wanted to talk to him." Xun said, "I think he may just have his head back on straight."

"Hm..."

* * *

A moment of silence went by, then Mars was kissed. After a second of shock, he melted into the kiss, letting Date do as he pleased. Date had him on his back a second later, hands roaming as they pleased. Both hoping no one would get curious and venture upstairs.

* * *

"Well, what do you suppose we do?" Neko asked, "should we just grab him and pull out?"

"Nope. Bad idea."

"We could just bluntly say 'we are leaving now move your ass'."

"Nope. Bad idea."

"Well, then what?"

"Let's just wait it out." Link said, "sorry if you don't think that's a good idea, but I think that's all we can do. Besides, haven't you learned by now,he makes hell look fun when he gets upset?"

"Hells, I remember that much. I don't know where he got the scorpions or how he got them in my mattress, but I'd rather not relive that experiance." Sheik said. Xun was giving him an odd look.

"You poor creature."

"Thank you."

Xun sighed and kicked at Neko's feet, making her growl at him and move her feet so he could flop onto the couch. He drew his legs up to his chest and closed his eyes, as if wanting to fall asleep.

"Stupid Date." He muttered to himself. Neko sat up, reaching over and poking him, only to find herself sprawled out in the ruins of the coffee table with a rather angered Xun stalking out of the room.

"What the hell just happened?"

"He just kinda picked you up and broke the table with your back. Are you alright?"

"One moment. I'm going to go kill him."

"No! No killing."

"Then I'll go wound him a moment." Neko followed the boy back out into the rain. Swearing to herself several times, she followed him for a good ten minutes before just grabbing the back of his coat and slamming him up against a tree. "You! What the hell is wrong with you?!" Xun didn't respond, aside from simply grabbing her wrists and twisting around, in an attempt to send her crashing to the ground again. "Fuck no! Not a second time!" Neko growled, countering the maneuver and pinning him back to the tree. "Alright…I thought you were the smart one here. Now…it's the fact that Date is slightly messed up and Mars is weird that's bugging you, right?" Xun lowered his eyes.

"Not quite…think of it as a sixth sense. I've been in that house for the past 200 years…and not aged a day, so I gathered an extra awareness. Date and Mars are both going to get hurt…either by each other or by that sadistic bastard stalking them."

"Okay, I'm listening." Neko said, slowly releasing the tactician.

"But what irks me more is that everyone seems to be caring about Mars, and how he's going to be feeling. What about Date? He's fragile, thought he'll never let it on. No one seems to think of how Date will be affected? What if Mars stays and Date gets hurt? Then they both have to live with it! What about if he leaves? Then Date will be messed up for a while but he'll get better..." Xun sank to the ground, drawing his knees up to his chest. Neko sank down back to his level, petting his cheek.

"Is there something you want to talk about?" Xun started to shake his head but stopped.

"It started after Date's loss at Mitagahara…" Neko sat back, listening intently to the story, drawing every bit of information in. When Xun had finished, he sank back and bit his lip. "That's why I'm having problems okay?"

"Well, first off," Neko said, "we care about Mars because he's shit powerful and if upset, he'll probably blow up the planet, plus Nightmare doesn't take kindly to any type of harm coming to him so we try to avoid any awkward fits of anger from him if we can. And second of all, you're right, we should take Date into account too, Mars isn't the only one that'll be affected by this whole thing. Third of all, I see where your worrying comes from...I defiantly get that now. And forth of all, you sound like you're just all for getting rid of Mars, like his absence would solve all of your problems. I must admit, he has caused a lot of problems for you guys and I can understand your wanting him gone, but if we just pull out damage will be done not only to Mars but to Date as well. This needs to be handled as delicatly as possible and-it's obvious that I'm bullshitting this bit, isn't it?"

"Fairly so, yes."

"Ok. So I want to just drag him out of here and never come back here again. I'll admit that. But it's not up to me. Normally, Nightmare has authority over Mars, and it's a bit of a shock to see how powerless he seems to be now. And now we've all kind of left our own special bit of scarring on you guys. I'm sorry about all this, I really am. We all are."

"What are we going to do now?"

"Sit? Eat? Be merry?"

"Bite me."

"I will. Don't tempt me."

Xun sighed and leaned back against the tree.

"We could pray that they come to their senses." He adds, looking up at the rain, listening to the thunder that suddenly seems to have manifested itself in the storm. He tensed. "Thunderstorm…" He gets to his feet. "We should be getting back…You know. The thunderstorm between Osaka and Mitagahara."

* * *

Date opened his eye and pulled away from the kiss at the rumble of thunder. He tenses, looking away from Mars and out the window, his skin going pale with fear.

"What's wrong?" Mars asked somewhat breathlessly, Date shook his head a bit.

"Nothing. Just..."

"A bad dream that once was real?" Mars finished for him. "The rain also makes me a little...nostalgic." then he gave Date a slightly agitated look, "and don't you dare tell me 'nothing' when you're whiter than chalk. I'm not stupid, and I don't like people thinking I am."

"I know you're not stupid. I didn't think you were. It's just..."

"What?" his eyes softened a bit, "what is it? You should know by now that you can talk to me."

"No, it's...it's not worth going into. I'd rather leave it be."

"...alright." Mars said, knowing what lines he shouldn't try to cross, "we'll drop the subject then." Date gave a relieved sigh. "Now, what are you going to do? I think it's safe to assume you're not going to finish this if you're ghost white with fright."

"I-can I just...can I just hold you? Just...remind me that I'm not alone."

"Alright. Do what you want." Mars sat up when Date moved to lay down again, pulling the young mage down with him, running his fingers through long red hair, taking his time in trying to regroup mentally. Mars hesitated for a long moment, debating on whether speaking would be a wise idea or not. Finally, he decided to chance it, "you know you're not alone here right?"

"Huh?"

"You're not alone here. I can't say you shouldn't be afraid, I know how frightening memories can be, but I just wanted to remind you that you aren't all alone here and that you're safe now." he closed his eyes, "I guess...that's all I wanted to say."

Date bit his lip and slowly let go of Mars. He pulled away and slowly sat up, wincing as he did so. He scooted over to the edge of the bed and pulled on his robe. "Are you sure you should be moving?" Mars asked.

"No. I probably shouldn't but…"

"But you feel like you have to."

Date nodded slowly as he tried to stand. He staggered, and Mars darted over.

"Hey! You! Back to bed!" Date shook his head and limped over to the window just as a large peal of thunder split the air, causing the one-eyed boy to cringe and whimper like a scared puppy. The lightning flashed and only then did Mars fully realize the fear and terror manifesting in Date's eye. "No. Date—don't…"

"I can't…not anymore…not after what he did to me…" He moved onto the windowsill, away from Mars.

"No! Don't you dare! Date! Don't!" Date just closed his eye, and stepped into nothingness.

* * *

"Is that…oh hell!!" Xun cried, dashing forwards. Neko saw, outrunning Xun in an effort to catch the suicidal boy, though she was one step too late. He hit the ground with a sickening crack, his skin pale and his breathing unnoticeable. The thunder roared above them, as if the memory had beaten his ability to go on this night.

* * *

"Why are we bringing him inside if he's...?" Neko asked as she helped Xun carry Date up the stairs to his room, they'd made sure Mars was downstairs and away from the carnage to avoid a spaz attack worthy of the type the mage was prone to...and he was prone to causing natural disasters when upset too much.

"He's not dead." Xun said, "it's not possible to kill yourself anywhere in or around the House, Weaver made it so from the beginning."

"I'm starting to really like her." Neko said as she kicked the door to Date's room open more, dragging him into the room and onto the bed, "we'll let whatever it is that happens when you try to kill yourself happen and then send Mars after him."

"Are you sure he deserves that kind of torture?"

"I'm positive. Because it's either Mars or me, and I'd make Mars look like a picnic with the beating I'd give him."

"...k."

"Let's get downstairs and see how Mars is holding up...if there are no trees in your kitchen then we're ok."

"What?"

"Nevermind, it's a long story."

"He grows trees?

"...deja vu."

Xun shrugged and brushed a few strands of hair from Date's face.

"This time…I don't think I blame him." He sighed and gently checked for broken bones. Finding none, he tapped Date's nose in an effot to wake him. A pained groan later, the One-Eyed Dragon woke, slowly looking around. Xun looked over at Neko. "Go get Mars."

"Right, let's release the beast after someone's rattled his cage." Neko said as she headed for the door. She headed downstairs, stopping in the living room, Mars seemed calm enough, over the fit of hysterics he'd been in earlier, Neko sighed, "how's he doing?" she asked, looking at Link.

"He's ok, I think." Link said.

"Mars," Neko said, "do you want to talk to Date?"

"H-he's alive? How?"

"Xun told me that you can't commit suicide in or around the House, no matter how hard you try. I'm not sure whether to think of that as good or bad thoguh."

"So he's alive?"

"Yup."

"Not for long!"

"Mars, wait!"

* * *

Date looked at Xun tiredly,

"So, I'm alive still then?"

"Weaver has made impossibly for you to comit suicide in or around the House, I think she didn't tell you because she knew you would attempt it."

"How nice of her." Date said sourly, then they heard someone headed for the room, with a panicky Neko on their heels.

"Mars, Mars, wait, he might not be in the best of conditions right now, beating him might just be a bad idea!"

"If he's not in a worse way now then he will be when I'm through with him!"

"Uh-oh." Xun moved away from the bed fast when the door slammed open, Mars storming into the room, Neko stopping in the doorway, then entering at a walk. Both she and Xun cringed at the loud 'slap'ing noise that followed.

"You bastard! You fucking bastard!" Mars shrieked, "why?! What the hell would make you think that fucking killing yourself was a good idea?! You have the nerve to say you love someone, then you pull a stunt like that, right in front of them?!" another slap, "Why?! Date, tell me why you would do that to yourself?! Why you would do that to me! Was it something that happened before all this? Someone that happened before all this? is it old nightmares that are driving you to do these utterly moronic thigns? Is that it?! I have nightmares too, I have the pain of being used too, being someone's little bitch! Neko does, Link does, Sheik does, we all have skeletons in our closets, Date. But they don't make the choices for us, they shouldn't make the choices for you too. There's no reason that they should." he stopped talking to catch his breath, trying and failing at holding back tears. "Why would you do this to me? Why?"

* * *

TBC...

* * *

A/N: ...not much to say here, sorry.

Mars: can I kill you now?

ANR: no. I will kick your feminine little ass.

Mars: hey!

ANR: if the truth hurts...

BOOM!

Zykan: o-o and it looks like it did.


	14. intermission

Intermission

Ranmaru: why'd you stop at such an odd point?

Mitsuhide: yeah, that's kind of an odd spot for a chapter break.

ANR: well, we're kind of stuck.

Anshi-chan: yeah, she broke my mind with her last post and I can't think anymore.

ANR: and I only stopped there because I broke my own brain so I can't help her here.

Anshi-chan: (nods)

Mars: smooth, geniuses.

ANR/Anshi-chan: (glare)

Date: I'm killing both of you, horribly painfully and grotesquely, you know this right?

ANR: try it, cyclops!

Date: what?!

ANR: you hear me! Come on, ya pansy!

Date: why you little b-

ANR: (beats him with her pool cue) there. All better.

Anshi-chan: o-0 where'd you get that thing?

ANR: this is one of the many random items that I hit people with. Happy-Happy Pool Cue.

Anshi-chan: you named it?

ANR: yup. I have Happy-Happy Pool Cue, Happy-Happy Harrisan, Happy-Happy Refrigerator, Happ-Happy Mace, Happy-Happy Tazer, Happy-Happy Duck-

Xun: duck?

Annakhin: I'm noticing a pattern in her nameing scheme..

Xun: funny, so am I.

ANR: hey, don't make me throw Happy-Happy Gerbille at you!

Xun/Annakhin: o-0

Nightmare: well, I hope you both grow out of this whole 'Date/Mars' phase soon.

ANR: yeah, sorry but it's kind of becoming hard to avoid.

Nightmare: you keep making sure it's impossible to avoid!

ANR: (hides behind Anshi-chan) don't yell at me! I don't like being yelled at...

Neko: and why exactly am I not allowed to have sex again?

Anshi-chan: because it would impede progress.

Link: I think you've successfully impeded progress yourselves, sans sex-stops.

ANR: oh, we have a funny-man over here!

Sheik: at least you have some purpose here, my friend.

Link: you're funny.

Bobby: well, I'd say, as far as plotlines go, most of this shit you're spewing is all one big filler.

Anshi-chan: no one asked you.

Skayr: I still say a good beating would help the story move along.

Mars: what? Beat them? (Points to ANR/Anshi-chan) sure why not.

ANR/Anshi-chan: (glaaaaaaaare)

Mars: o-0 (hides behind Nightmare)

Nightmare: glad to know I still have a purpose.

ANR: was that a sarcastic remark from you?

Nightmare: you really are slow aren't you?

Zykan: told ya.

ANR: shut up. If you weren't pregnant, I'd beat you.

Zykan: I get no love.

Annakhin: you do it to yourself, you know this right?

Zykan: (growls a bit)

Anshi-chan: grar.

Zykan: o-0 eh?

Anshi-chan: Grar!

Zykan: o-0

Annakhin: 0-o

Bobby: WTH?

Anshi-chan: grar.

ANR: just go with it.

Bobby: oh. Ok. grar to you too then.

Anshi-chan: grar.

Bobby: Grar.

Anshi-chan: Grar!

Bobby: Graar!

Anshi-chan: Graarr!

Skayr: this is an uphill battle.

Bobby: Grraarr!

Anshi-chan: GGrraarr!

Bobby: Grargarargafragrar!

Anshi-chan: Grargarargafragraragar!

Bobby: Spoooooooooooooooooooooooooot!

Anshi-chan: 0-o ????

Bobby: I win.

All: -.-

Skayr: a trifle of a victory really.

Bobby: grar to you!

Skayr: spoot to you.

Bobby: asshole.

Skayr: asshat.

Bobby: touche.

All: ...

ANR: (looks at Anshi-chan) you've created a monster.

Anshi-chan: no, there was already a monster there, I just made it worse.

ANR: oh, that's so much better.

Anshi-chan: yup.

ANR: I was being sarcastic.

Anshi-chan: well, anyway. We're fresh out of ideas for now, so the story's going on a bit of a vacation. We are terribly sorry about that fact.

ANR: hope you enjoyed what bit we have up, we'll get our brains in gear again soon, hopefully.

ANR/Anshi-chan: ta for now!


End file.
